The fire last time. And the time before that.

Western wildfires are becoming bigger, more frequent, and more damaging. Driven by drought, global warming, a surging population, Santa Ana winds, wildland fuels built up over decades and other factors, Southern California’s fire problem will grow larger, not smaller, in the coming years.Even so, the state’s 2007 fire season, while it may seem unusually intense, is average so far, based on Cal Fire (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) statistics for major wildland fires under its jurisdiction. From January through mid-May, 1,495 wildland fires have burned 10,948 acres, in line with the five-year average of 1,439 fires and 12,368 acres for the same period.For most of a century, the wildland fires of California have been the deadliest in the nation. Fire statistics record 208 fatalities among wildland firefighters in major, multiple-fatality fires across the country from 1910 to 2004. Of those, 122 fatalities, or more than half, occurred in California. Figures for civilian deaths are harder to come by, but no state has wildfire catastrophes that equal the 25 civilian deaths in the 1991 Oakland firestorm or the 23 civilian deaths in the San Diego County 2003 firestorm, at least not since the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when gigantic forest fires in the Upper Midwest cost thousands of lives.And the confrontation between people and fire is accelerating faster in Southern California than anywhere else in the nation. Of the 450,000 people estimated to have moved into previously wild areas so far this decade, about 240,000 -- more than half -- have chosen Southern California.

[T]he city’s emotional heart is somewhere near its geographic center -- the great park bestowed by Col. Griffith J. Griffith in 1896 and severely burned in a fire this week, serving as a near-catastrophic reminder that Southern California is embarking on an extraordinarily dangerous summer.

Here’s the thing about being overrun by fire: It is like being caught in a flash flood of flame. Winds flow through winding canyons and mountain passes like rivers, pushing forward unpredictable waves of superheated air that can sear your lungs and roast you even before the flames arrive. Especially in Southern California’s extreme conditions, fire moves faster than any person can run, especially when it’s roaring uphill. [...]Firefighters try to learn from each death. Each disaster -- and each success -- leads to new training and rules about how to engage a fire. But despite what we’ve learned, and the constant attention to safety, 36 firefighters have been killed in California wildfires just since 1990.

Safety experts, however, say it’s not a coincidence that counties and developers that created fire-resistant envelopes around homes fared dramatically better in the recent wildfires.Of course, housing location and density, as well as wind speed and direction, all mattered. But in San Bernardino County, where homeowners are required to clear only 30 feet of brush around woodland homes each spring, flames tore across 150,000 acres and through more than 900 dwellings. Ventura County, which requires a 100-foot clearance, lost just 38 homes even though more than 172,000 acres burned. Not one house was lost in Los Angeles County’s Stevenson Ranch, which requires fire-retardant roofs and 200-foot buffers, even though flames approached the planned community in the Santa Susana Mountains. San Diego County also requires a 100-foot buffer in fire-prone areas, but budget problems have restricted enforcement.

But although we know that wildfire is for the most part natural and impossible to suppress, we seem incapable of disengaging from our war against it. We have built the world’s largest firefighting force, an army of many thousands, equipped with helicopters and planes, engines and ‘dozers. We’ve increased federal spending against wildfires sixfold since 1991 -- up to $2.3 billion this year and a planned $2.9 billion next year -- with about half that increase coming in the National Fire Plan, a behemoth that seeks not only to fight wildfires but also to reduce their fuel through thinning, pruning, raking and other “mechanical” treatments. This is touted as reform, but really it is more war, in that fire is still cast as the enemy.If this were a Hollywood movie, it would be a sequel -- or worse, a tired franchise [...]There are ways we could break out of this cycle. We could expect the people who live in fire zones to take responsibility for their choices, we could end a long list of subsidies that includes road extensions, fire crews, insurance rates that don’t reflect the specific risk, even federally backed fire-zone mortgages. We could get more realistic with regulations on how the fire zone is built in and landscaped, instead of the piecemeal, often weak regulations we have now. And we could accept wildfires, requiring prescribed burns, allowing lightning-ignited blazes to burn themselves out, as the seasonal price of living in the West. If we don’t do that, we’re stuck in sequel after sequel.

During the height of fire season, the department leases two CL-415 SuperScoopers from the Service Aerien of Quebec. Because Santa Ana winds can occur during October and November when the danger of wildfires is greatest, the SuperScoopers, which can deliver 1,600 gallons of water and / or foam per drop very rapidly, provide additional firefighting resources with an initial attack capability aimed at extinguishing fires in the first few minutes.What troubles many homeowners in Topanga and throughout the county is the prospect of wildfires that do not occur during the SuperScoopers lease period, which is generally for two months. Santa Ana wind conditions are often unpredictable and do not always return to Southern California on schedule. Wildfires are caused by lightning, accidents and arson. Operating the SuperScooper for a limited period of time is a calculated risk that invites another Los Alamos.Would it not be wiser to own the aircraft and provide unlimited use of the SuperScooper in the event of wildfire emergencies outside of the dangerously limited annual lease period?

There is, without exception, no reason for a structure to be consumed by wildfire. [...]When these fires break out, we spend millions of dollars per 24-hour period employing Super Scoopers, retardant-dropping fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, and hundreds of fire engines and firefighters in a vain attempt to save structures that, with forethought, could have survived even the highest intensity blaze.The key to structural survival in a wildfire is fuel management by entire communities. Although site specific, this includes choosing native, drought-resistant vegetation while declining nonnative species, using fire-safe building materials, selecting appropriate structure placement and providing adequate water. For hillside / canyon residents, fuel management is the most critical fire-safety consideration.

And in the days before the Bobbitt and the Harding, whilst mad King Rodney careened with his chariots down the 210 past the towers of Megiddo to the Valley; before King Bradley banged his head against the city’s Gates whilst gangbangers banged elsewhere; before Michael and the Men of Endez and Heidi were brought low, and Riordan, Feinstein and Boxer raised on high; lo, even then, the Lord hardened his heart against the City of Angels, against the Malibites and Bevites, the Westsiders and the Valleyites; yea, even unto the chariot makers of Orange County and Van Nuys, and there was a scourge upon the land.And the Lord said unto the denizens of the South, behold, though ye have waged my battles faithfully, I shall rust thy swords and diffuse thy lasers; neither shall thy patriots fly true nor thy spysats see straight. For thou hast become too proud in thy victory--and this Bush that burns brightly without being consumed, neither by Irangate nor by the vision thing, is the worst offender. For this, thy weapons shall become as a glut upon the market. Neither shall thee make batteries for thy cars nor shall thee cobble chips for Nippon. And a smoggy pall fell upon the land, and the hammers became still, and home equity became as for naught.And the Lord then said unto Daryl, stretch out thy Rod and smite this man of Cush in the kidneys, that he might feel the billy club of G-d. But an Evil Eye beheld this travesty, and the people rose up in anger, and the city burned and gave up its treasures. And Daryl’s corporals stood silent and sullen, for their E-mail system worked not, and they knew not of any beating or mayhem and heard not of this Denny. And, as the judges pondered, there was a wailing from Sou’ Central and Simi to Seoul.And the Lord said unto a schizoid shepherd in the hills of Moab, rise up early in the morning and light thy campfire and cast its sparks upon the brush, and I will send swarms of Santa Anas to give them succor. And the land was ruined by fire whilst the Malibites gnashed their teeth. But when the smoke cleared, the Lord hardened their hearts. And though their sages said rebuild not, for neither man nor beast may dwell safely in these places, they flocked back through the Valley of Topanga unto the waters of the Dead Sea. And though their wells of Perrier were tainted with benzene, and tasted as of blood, they set up their tents and renewed their cable service.