Questions Out of the Ashes : ‘Fire of the future’ resurrects familiar issues

It was an all-too-familiar horror. A firestorm fanned by powerful winds raced up drought-ravaged, wooded hillsides, destroying hundreds of rustic homes built perilously close to nature. This time, tragedy struck the hills above Berkeley and Oakland as firefighters bravely fought the spreading flames.

Environmentalists called it a fire of the future--an indication of what can be expected as more homes are built on wooded and hard-to-reach hillsides. This inferno claimed at least 14 victims--including a firefighter and a police officer--and left at least six people missing. The flames injured nearly 150 and chased 5,000 from their homes.

According to preliminary estimates, at least 400 hillside homes and condos are in ruins and damage is at least $1.5 billion.

Before the embers had cooled, Gov. Pete Wilson declared an emergency. The Red Cross, Salvation Army and United Way rushed assistance to the homeless.

From the ashes may come answers to questions such as: How close can Californians build to nature without risking another huge tragedy? What role did wood-shake roofs play in the spread of this inferno? Those charming but highly combustible roofs allowed flames to leapfrog from house to house in the 1990 Santa Barbara fire, which destroyed or damaged 540 homes and other buildings.

Either the state or more municipalities should follow the lead of Los Angeles City and County, which banned new shake roofs and required existing wood roofs to be replaced with fire-retardant roofs if they need repairs over more than 10% of their areas.

Californians cannot control freakish high temperatures, strong Santa Ana winds or a chronic drought. But we can control where we build, and how we do it, before another such fire strikes.