Totally off topic, but I always wonder how a cigarette is so often blamed, or that one ember being sucked into the attic can burn down a house. Seriously.

Should we all start packing cigarettes instead of cotton balls and PJ into the forest?

As for what to do? First post nails it. Anyone from Southern Cal SHOULD be able to recite most of that from memory. Wildfires (plural!) happen annually. We don't have "autumn," we have "fire" as a season.