In Fires' Ruins, Lessons in Prevention

Mexican authorities "have it in their head to combat fire, but they're not exactly very good at it," Minnich said. Usually the fires stopped when they reached a patch of chaparral that had burned less than 20 years ago and was too young and juicy to ignite. This created a landscape that, viewed from space, resembled a mosaic: patches of land shaded dark, light or in between by the assorted smallish fires that burned themselves out.

"The mosaic stops at the border," Minnich said.

North of the line, Americans had spent a century becoming very good at putting out fires quickly. In the early 20th century, the U.S. Forest Service had a policy of extinguishing any fire by 10 a.m. of the day after its discovery. The policy of "fire suppression" meant no wildfire should be allowed to spread, and as more houses were built beside wild land, the policy became more entrenched. In California today, nearly 3.2 million homes are classified as being at "very high" or "extreme risk" of wildfire.

But suppression also means that a fire not put out immediately can become far more dangerous more swiftly, often because the weather so favors the blaze. There is no young, juicy chaparral to stop it. All the shrubs have grown old and dried out. They are ready to go.

"Southern California is arid land. It's very dry, and it was meant to burn," said Bill Peters, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. "If you have people living on that land, you have to suppress fires. Now we find ourselves in areas that don't burn for 25, 30, 40 years. When it burns, it becomes a much more intensive, damaging fire."

For ferocity, residents constantly compared last week's blazes to the 2003 fires that killed at least 15 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes in San Diego County.

Perhaps the most significant lesson of 2003 may have been absorbed by Clifford F. Hunter, who picked his way through the ruins as a damage assessor for San Diego County. Looking for methods that would improve the odds of homes surviving fires too big for firefighters to control, Hunter learned that Australia builds developments so that homeowners can stay in their houses during wildfires and defend their property themselves.

Hunter didn't envision San Diego County residents fighting their own fires, but in his next job, as fire marshal for the affluent community of Rancho Santa Fe, he championed changes that made the difference between smoldering ashes and a little soot on the patio.

"I don't have to say much about what happened here," Hunter said. "I feel the results speak for themselves."

The showcases were five pricey, gated developments that had been in the planning stages for years on the hills around Lake Hodges. Hunter and other officials made them the guinea pigs for strict new building and fire codes backed by regular inspections. The rules require boxed eaves, fire sprinklers, spark arrestors on chimneys and noncombustible roofing materials rated Class A. Landscaping required fire-resistant plants such as monkey flower and sage.

"We wanted some prettier plants, but they said no. I'm going to honor every single rule from now on," said Schmidt, stunned to find her home undamaged in the Rancho Santa Fe development named Crosby, after the crooner Bing.

"I saw it on TV. This hill was on fire," said Mitra Hogg, a neighbor. She fled in her pajamas when the inferno roared through. The smoke was so heavy she couldn't see her patio furniture through the window.