“The council stood up in court and made us to look like the worst, wanton environmental vandals on the earth. We’ve got thousands of trees on our property. We cleared about 247,” he said. I saw that couple interviewed on TV, they must have been in their 60's, to go through what they did, losing the court case, and having to pay costs, legal fees and fines to the total of one hundred thousand dollars at that age must have been dreadful. The woman never stopped crying during the interview. It was heart breaking to watch. 
There have been firefighters who have commented that because they have been prevented from clearing fire-breaks and fire-trails, they have spent more time trying to access the fires than actually fighting the fires.
Officials who prevented reasonable protective measures and contributed to the current death and destruction should be held accountable for their action. There needs to be a way to charge them with something like contributory negligence or manslaughter. Suing municipalities doesn't deter because it is your own tax dollars being used against you. Individual liability and judgments would deter, but attorneys and judges have to figure out how to make it so.