Wow. I just saw a pjoto from the hills of Malibu, after the fire. ALL the vegetation is gone. There is nothing but charred ash. That was a seriously-hot fire.

We are accustomed to seeing burned-out areas here in California. Usually the grass is gone, and there are charred tree stumps. But over at Malibu ... nothing ... nada. Very dangerous. Just what Hikermor said .. California chapparal is high risk when it starts to burn.

Thanks for comments about respirator. True enough. There has been very thick smoke here.

This winter I will have to seriously consider moving to another town. There is no sense in staying in a valley that is a fire trap. It's just playing Russian roulette. The town authorities in CA are never going to solve these problems.

RE Controlled Burns - I dont know who calls the shots. It probably has to be made at the local level i.e. town authorities, or home-owners associations. The problem in CA is that these local authorities are filled with dead-wood. I am talking about the management level. They wont make smart decisions. Partly it is because of risks and legal consequences. If a controlled burn did get out of control, they would be financially liable. But beyond that, CA is criss-crossed by a myriad of local rules that dont make any sense. So local groups of home owners just say ... well, a fire disaster didnt happen here yet, so maybe we will just get lucky in the future. No-one will get off their b*tt and do something if it requires major initiative. In addition, CA house owners usually refuse to pay extra money for new measures anyway. So everything becomes deadlocked at the local level. And people just sit around, waiting for the inevitable.

There is no rule or law that compels people to FIX these problems.