Christopher Flavelle

California has one of the best building codes in the country for how to build homes in fire-prone areas so that they're less likely to burn. That means using materials that are less likely to catch fire, so stucco or concrete, steel roofs, not having wood exterior, not having openings that embers can fly through to ignite the interior of the home.

California has one of the best building codes in the country for how to build homes in fire-prone areas so that they're less likely to burn. That means using materials that are less likely to catch fire, so stucco or concrete, steel roofs, not having wood exterior, not having openings that embers can fly through to ignite the interior of the home.

Those rules also include things like what you can plant and how close to your house. This idea of defensible space, those rules say that as far away as 100 feet from the edge of your structure, you've got to manage the vegetation to reduce the amount of shrubs and mulch and trees, they can catch fire. Very thorough.

Those rules also include things like what you can plant and how close to your house. This idea of defensible space, those rules say that as far away as 100 feet from the edge of your structure, you've got to manage the vegetation to reduce the amount of shrubs and mulch and trees, they can catch fire. Very thorough.

And then beyond that, California, pulling out to the macro level, does a lot of things other states I'm sure would love to do. They've got a really well-funded state agency called CAL FIRE that predicts fire activity, draws maps, but where the risk is the highest, has armies of really well-trained firefighters and resources to move in when they're needed. They've got a political culture

And then beyond that, California, pulling out to the macro level, does a lot of things other states I'm sure would love to do. They've got a really well-funded state agency called CAL FIRE that predicts fire activity, draws maps, but where the risk is the highest, has armies of really well-trained firefighters and resources to move in when they're needed. They've got a political culture

perhaps most importantly, that is open to this idea of rules that homeowners have to abide by to reduce their risk. And then they've got money. California, one of the largest economies in the world, and the result is they've got a tax base that can fund just a huge array of measures to harden and protect communities against fires.

perhaps most importantly, that is open to this idea of rules that homeowners have to abide by to reduce their risk. And then they've got money. California, one of the largest economies in the world, and the result is they've got a tax base that can fund just a huge array of measures to harden and protect communities against fires.

So it's exactly the right question. It creates kind of a puzzle. If California was, in general, pretty ready, what went wrong? But at a big level, California was pretty ready. So that raises the question, well, can you be ready enough? Is it even possible to do enough as a city or a county or a state or a country?

So it's exactly the right question. It creates kind of a puzzle. If California was, in general, pretty ready, what went wrong? But at a big level, California was pretty ready. So that raises the question, well, can you be ready enough? Is it even possible to do enough as a city or a county or a state or a country?

to prepare communities against these fires that are getting worse because of climate change. And it's a question that, for the moment, doesn't have a good answer.

to prepare communities against these fires that are getting worse because of climate change. And it's a question that, for the moment, doesn't have a good answer.

That's bang on. One question is how fast can you improve the protections for places like Los Angeles? But another question is how much can you improve it, right? All the things we talked about, the way home construction is regulated and the way people try to squeeze the flammable vegetation out of a landscape, you can always do more of that. You can build concrete buildings.

That's bang on. One question is how fast can you improve the protections for places like Los Angeles? But another question is how much can you improve it, right? All the things we talked about, the way home construction is regulated and the way people try to squeeze the flammable vegetation out of a landscape, you can always do more of that. You can build concrete buildings.

boxes that are just surrounded by gravel and pavement and there isn't a shred of wood anywhere in sight or even a tree. I don't know if people want to live like that, but in theory you could. You could put more space between houses so that fires have a harder time jumping from house to house.

boxes that are just surrounded by gravel and pavement and there isn't a shred of wood anywhere in sight or even a tree. I don't know if people want to live like that, but in theory you could. You could put more space between houses so that fires have a harder time jumping from house to house.

You could build bigger buffer zones between the forest and communities so that embers would have to fly even further distance on the wind. All of those things would help and they're all possible, but they're all hard. And they would not eliminate the risk, which, as you noted, is getting worse just about every year.

You could build bigger buffer zones between the forest and communities so that embers would have to fly even further distance on the wind. All of those things would help and they're all possible, but they're all hard. And they would not eliminate the risk, which, as you noted, is getting worse just about every year.

Yeah, and we haven't even talked about cost. Even if people were willing to stomach the loss in beauty that these kinds of changes would entail, they're not cheap, right? If you want to replace your roof with something that is flame-proof or more flame-resistant with a steel roof, something like that, very expensive.

Yeah, and we haven't even talked about cost. Even if people were willing to stomach the loss in beauty that these kinds of changes would entail, they're not cheap, right? If you want to replace your roof with something that is flame-proof or more flame-resistant with a steel roof, something like that, very expensive.