In some cases, a brick wall/façade can be reinforced by applying a polymer backing layer that actually bonds to each brick, but it's generally not feasible for every square foot of a structure. Techniques that rely on reinforcing bars bolted to a wall won't anchor every brick in place.

This Napa quake does reinforce the idea that the most dangerous place (assuming you're not sleeping next to a brick (unreinforced?) fireplace at a slumber party, like the one seriously injured teen) is to stay away from the interface between inside/outside of a building. In general, if you're inside, stay inside during the shaking. If you're outside, stay outside. Falling bricks could have killed people. In a Third World country with little to no building codes, I'd want to get out of any building ASAP during a quake, but not someplace like California.

I saw at least a couple interviews with people at the mobile home park who were injured because their homes had shifted off the foundations and they fell because the stairs were no longer lined up with the front door. Another guy had a small apiary next to his mobile home and he dislocated his hip when he went to check on his birds and stepped into a hole after his unit had shifted over from it used to be. I'm not sure if they had flashlights or not and whether they would have made a difference, particularly when you've just woken up at 3:20am.