I've lived in California most of my life, and at various times, I lived in some of its most fire-prone areas, like Big Sur. We've had some fires this year, but it's still nothing like what we experienced last summer, which was the worst on record. In response to the fire risk, I've gotten in the habit of putting most of my baseball memorabilia in safe deposit boxes. As for preventing wildfires, I've never seen that as an option. I agree that tossing a cigarette is a really dumb thing to do under any circumstances, but the landscape is genetically engineered to burn. Ask any California firefighter. If a human doesn't start a fire, eventually nature will with a lightning strike (which is how most of last year's fires started). To the contrary, I'm a big advocate of controlled burns. Either we burn the landscape when it's reasonably safe to burn it (in the winter or spring) or nature WILL burn it in the summer and fall, when it's far less safe to burn and many homes will be destroyed ...
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