One thing that never ceases to amaze me is watching the news or after-the-fact videos where the residents can clearly see the fire coming, but don't evacuate until they're told to do so. In the mountains of SoCal, there's often only one way out, and it's on a narrow, steep, curving road.

How stupid is that? Do people really think that standing between the fire and your house, wishing and cussing, is going to stop a fire that scares the s**t out of the firefighters?

If there's a fire coming, RUN!

Sue (scared of bears and fires)

It's called the "womb" syndrome. This is home, this is safe. Kills a lot of people. Simply because they take too long to make the mental gearshift from safe to threatened.

I live in suburbia so driving out is not an issue. Waiting until it's too late to pack is still ill advised. I could have been out of the area in 15 minutes from a dead sleep. The folks who live in the areas where fires start amaze me when they rebuild the same type structure that just burned down.