Arsonists are bad people but why do we have these tinderbox areas that have not taken measures to protect structures.
The big story is the disaster caused by an uncontrollable fire, not how it was started.
The Smokies are very rainy, not tinderbox areas at all. This has been an unusually severe drought. Cutting back the trees and vegetation doesn’t necessarily work here as it does in the west, soil erosion and landslides resulted back when timber was clearcut, and would result again if doing so for fire prevention. But, fire breaks and roads haven’t been maintained, and that was a problem driven by environmentalism, I’ll grant you that.