According to the Wall Street Journal “Building codes, state grants and low insurance rates have encouraged people to flee expensive cities for their dangerously fire-prone fringes.”
But look at the picture that is affixed to the story! It tells a different story. The fire was supposed to be a forest fire caused by a campfire in the woods. That fire allegedly destroyed 20,000 homes. The problem is that the burned out houses are surrounded by still alive unburned trees. How can a forest fire burn down chimneys, melt steel, burn bricks and ceramic toilets and yet leave the trees surrounding the houses untouched? Steel melts at 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. A raging forest fire burns on average at 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit (extreme conditions may cause temperatures of up to 2,100 degrees). But that is not nearly hot enough to melt steel, let alone brick. Indeed, brick will not burn, but it will crack. That does not happen until it reaches 3,200 F. Fireplaces are designed to contain very hot fires. So how do you explain the missing fireplaces in the photo below? Notice that there is a shed in the lower right of the photo that is untouched and still standing. That would not be possible in a general fire conflagration. The fire seems directed at the houses.