On a Mises blog thread last year , I noted: controlled burns might of course be useful in some places, especially along the WUI (wildland-urban interface), but Randal O`Toole at Cato has done a good job showing that generally fuel accumulation is not a major factor in the increasing number and severity...
[Warning: Snarky. Sorry, but as I got going I couldn`t resist.] 1. As I noted on several Mises wildfire threads last year , a 2006 study showed that the wildfire season in the West has increased on average by 78 days over the past three decades (1987-2003 vs. 1970-1986), with the average total area burned...
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...