Deadly California Fires

It is indeed terrible that an entire town of 6000 homes including schools and stores has been burned down with many unable to escape who perished in the flames. That such a thing could happen is beyond the expectation of anybody and comes on top of wildfires throughout the summer leaving a terrible destruction across a very wide area in California.

America seems beset by extremes of weather which leave trails of destruction through fire, wind and rain. It is surely evident that the climate is changing and there are consequences which will have to be addressed. It does not matter in this context whether it is a natural process or man made or a combination of both. It is happening and measures now have to be formulated to mitigate the risks. Better flood defences, houses which can resist wind and fire rather than the highly vulnerable timber frame structure so common in suburbs and rural communities, forest clearance to create firebreaks.  The list is long but to ignore it will cost lives. More and more of them.