as this article in the July 7 NY Times shows. This is not at all surprising, as owners all have incentives to protect their property, and relatively small communities of people can work together well when needed.
One can expect to see increasing sophistication in voluntary fire-fighting and in fire prevention, particularly if limited resources and relative remoteness makes it difficult for government "ride to the rescue".
PS: Don't look now, but the Western wildfire season is now 78 days longer than it was thirty years ago, as I noted on several Mises blog threads last year. This is one of the manifestations of climate change that the Bush administration was forced to recognize - four years late - in a report released last month.