If these fires were caused by natural forces then it is as it should be. We just happen to be in harms way.
Dead & threatened stands of trees could have been harvested, but the gov’t said no, wasting billions of tons of lumber/pulp & leaving a massive fire hazard. Next will come flooding & landslides.
Logging this timber would have provided jobs. Federal timber receipts would have helped with the deficit. The surplus lumber would have been gobbled up by China & others in a building boom, helping our trade balance. And, much of the pollution & human tragedy would never have happened.
Conservationists & environmentalists should both be outraged.