You are partially right. But these fires have hit areas that have never been hit by wildfires before, including cities like Valencia. Besides which, if you avoided putting a house where there might be fire, floods, mudslides or earthquakes, there’s pretty much nowhere you could build here.
That said, I’d agree that there should be a ban on any more large housing developments in rural/canyon areas in California. There’s a water shortage too, and that’s another reason to stop building.
As a kid I used to live at the intersection of Mulholland drive and Topanga canyon. Real Estate was in Topanga was always discounted due to floods, mudslides and fire insurance was tough to get.
A vivid memory I have as a kid was standing on the edge of one of these hills some months after one of these fires and we had just had several weeks of good rain. I was standing at the edge of a huge crack in the ground the whole side of the hill was about to give away as there was nothing to hold it in place after the fire.
Hiking in Topanga canyon in the late 60’s I came across a the foundation of a huge house with a huge Iron gate, must have been a former actors house or something in the 20’s or 30’s it had been burned to the ground. In the canyons sooner or later you are going to get hit.
I would have thought Calabasas would be safe and surprised that it’s burning there, but then didn’t Atherton in the Bay Area get hit a few years ago ? And I thought that was a well developed area like Calabasas
California is a beautiful place to live you just have to be able to survive the occasional geologic episodes and natures fury.