[rjsimmon]

A few years back LA was completely surrounded by arson set wild fires.

That pretty much happens every year. When I was a kid living in Santa Ana (late '60s) and then in Lancaster, the cycle repeated constantly was landslides in the spring due to rain then heavy foliage growth followed by fires in the summer. The Enviro-nuts had Cali ban the construction of fire breaks in the forests which made for some savage infernos.

Gotta wonder if Jerry's early years were too heavily involved in partying with Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne to remember that.

[null and void]

Yes, there are frequent fires in southern California, when I used to hang out with Ben Watson the late civil defense honcho for the Pomona Valley, he said that should a fire start in the mountains north of LA during a Santa Ana wind condition, if the wind lasted a week, it would burn all the way to the Pacific, and there was nothing that could be done to stop it.

As Red Badger noted in post #5, what was different about that year was coördinated ignitions at multiple locations completely encircling the Greater Los Angeles area.

[WayneS]

...co-cai-ain,

Runnin’ all around his brain...

[ApplegateRanch]

When I lived in the Riverside area in the 70s, it was a land of four seasons:
Flood
Fry
Fire
frost (lasted about 2-3 weeks)