I grew up there, and most of what you say has been done for years. I remember wood shingled roofs being banned back in the 60's for instance; and fire breaks were everywhere. There are reservoirs all over the place; Devils Gate Dam, Sierra Madre Canyon, to name a few. The fact is that people who live there know these things already. They should never be forced to move ( by whom ?). They accept the risks. What you propose and how ( forced to move) so that it never happens again ( a ridiculous claim) sounds a bit to tyrannical too me.
You are right about the regulations and I am not familiar with the details. But, generally the changes in roofs are phased in. IOW, I lived in Houston when they banished wood shingled roofs after a bad apartment fire that destroyed several blocks of homes. But, we were NOT required to change our roofs unless more than one quarter of the roof needed replacing. Many people just repaired their roofs, a little at a time, keeping under the 1/4 replacement point each time. That’s been over 30 years, and many of those wooden roofs are still there.
My suggestion that people be moved out (after being paid for their property) was just a discussion point. I’m just sick of hearing about fire sweeping through these communities every year. I’m telling you that this did NOT happen when I was growing up there because nobody LIVED there. There might have been a few vacation cabins sprinkled about. But we did NOT have devastating fires all the time like they do now.
REASON?
Fewer people to start fires.
Comprehensive education, starting with little kids — Smokey the Bear campaign.
Fewer people living in the vulnerable areas. Buildings mostly were not year around residences.
Forest fire lookouts. Those cabins in the sky have all been closed, I understand. That used to be a plumb summer job to be a forest fire “sitter” watching for wisps of smoke and reporting it.
We didn’t have so many illegals running all over the place.
We had a more law abiding populace. Not so careless.
We didn’t have people operating pot farms in the middle of our forests, as was recently discovered in Sequoia.
None of that prevents fires started by lightning, however — always a danger.