The Perfect Fire

some thoughts on the california fires.  horrifying and apocalyptic as they are, even they are not without political connection.  tom engelhardt, of tomdispatch.com, invited mike davis to do a guest piece which he titled "The Perfect Fire." some quotes from this piece:
  "This is a specter against which grand inquisitors and wars against terrorism are powerless to protect us. ... many fire scientists dismiss 'ignition' - whether natural, accidental, or deliberate - as a relatively trivial factor in their equations.  They study wildfire as an inevitable result of the accumulation of fuel mass. Given fuel, 'fire happens.'
   The best preventive measure, of course, is to return to the native-Californian practice of regular, small-scale burning........but the suburbanization of the fire terrain makes it almost impossible to implement it on any adequate scale.......as a result, huge plantations of old, highly flammable brush accumulate along the peripheries...of new, sprawled-out suburbs.  Since the devastating 1993 fires, tens of thousands of new homes have pushed their way into the furthest recesses of So Cal's coastal and inland fire-belts.  Each new homeowner, moreover, expects heroic levels of protection from underfunded county and state fire agencies.
    Fire, as a result, is politically ironic.  The voices of the recall roaring to the skies against the oppression of an out-of-control public sector.......now scream for fire engines, and 'big government' is the only thing standing between their $3 million homes and the ash pile."   it's an interesting perspective on issues facing CA's new governer. note that the area of the fires largely follows the geographical boundaries of the recall vote. the most interesting bit is the factoid that "fire insurance in California is 'cross-subsidized' by all homeowners." 
     those who build their homes, $3 million ones or shanties, in these locations are well aware of the annual possibilities for wildfires.  this one may be "the fire of the century," but it won't be the only one.  if these residents aren't willing to pay higher insurance premiums or higher property taxes to protect the dream homes they put directly in nature's path, what in the world are they thinking?