[anoldafvet]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe part of the problem is that the enviros won't let people clear brush from NEAR their homes. In order to protect some rat or insect they have to leave all this "habitat" untouched and right next to their homes. Along comes a fire and it all becomes "kindling" for the house. Also, if they were able to clear FIREBREAKS, the fire might actually be able to be contained. If we cleared brush from now till Satan bought ice skates, we wouldn't do 1% of the harm these fires have done.

[MineralMan]

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe part of the problem is that the enviros won't let people clear brush from NEAR their homes. In order to protect some rat or insect they have to leave all this "habitat" untouched and right next to their homes. Along comes a fire and it all becomes "kindling" for the house. Also, if they were able to clear FIREBREAKS, the fire might actually be able to be contained. If we cleared brush from now till Satan bought ice skates, we wouldn't do 1% of the harm these fires have done.
"

You're correct, in a sense, but that's not the whole problem. Many of the houses on hillsides in Southern California just never should have been built there. It's not just the brush, it's the mudslides, and all the other reasons.

If you build a cluster of homes halfway up a brushy hillside, the "fire break" needed is amazingly large. In these fires, burning embers can fly long distances. The problem is not in clearing around a house...it's the whole hillside that has to be cleared, particularly below the homes, but also above, and that's just not going to happen, for many reasons. One of those reasons is that the folks in those houses like looking down on their scenic hillsides.

Yes, environmentalists object to clearing habitat, but that's not really the problem on these CA hillsides.