It is difficult to get permission to clear trees, and if one acts without a permit, fines are severe.
Of course, being alive and not burnt up by a fire is some consolation.
A family in Victoria was heavily fined because they cleared a firebreak around their property. They were dragged through the courts - treated like criminals.
Their house is now the only one standing in the area.
They were labelled law breakers, fined $50,000 and left emotionally and financially drained.
But seven years after the Sheahans bulldozed trees to make a fire break — an act that got them dragged before a magistrate and penalised — they feel vindicated. Their house is one of the few in Reedy Creek, Victoria, still standing.
...Although Liam Sheahan’s 2002 decision to disregard planning laws and bulldoze 250 trees on his hilltop property hurt his family financially and emotionally, he believes it helped save them and their home on the weekend. “The house is safe because we did all that,” he said as he pointed out his kitchen window to the clear ground where tall gum trees once cast a shadow on his house. “We have got proof right here. We are the only house standing in a two-kilometre area.”...Mr Sheahan is still angry about his prosecution, which cost him $100,000 in fines and legal fees.
“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.
“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.
They should sue to get all their money back now that the truth is obvious to all.
And sadly, it is no different here in California.