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Yes building codes are probably one of the issues. I heard the term 
"defensible space" when I moved to Florida in 1985. The fire department 
would run stories in the local newspapers on how to make your home 
defensible for the fire fighters. The state forest here burn off most of 
the forest completely every three years. That keeps down the understory 
and allows the forest to thrive and provides a friendly habitat for the 
animals.

While there might be a lot of complaining about the ash from the 
controlled burns in the spring and some counties have even tried to pass 
laws against the burns - it gets ash in our swimming pools - state law 
gives the Fl DOF absolute authority on forest management.

I think the recent trend of people building close to or on private plots 
inside public lands that are prone to wild fire has reached a point that 
it is now causing significant issues. There was an article in one 
newspaper I was reading not long ago about the insurance companies 
taking a long hard look about fire risk and if such structures would be 
insurable. I suspect in the near future the situation will be similar to 
insurance - if you live in a low lying area that is hurricane prone you 
can't get commercial home owners insurance - in Florida and some other 
areas on the East coast. You have to buy into the state run insurance 
fund (set up after Andrew when a bunch of policies were canceled and 
people could not get insurance).

After the mass cancellations of insurance after Andrew, people who had 
paid 500 bucks for insurance prior had to pay 12,000 a year for the 
state run fund. It was either that or no insurance. I would not be 
surprised to see similar things happening with respect to houses in wild 
fire prone areas.

Truman

Maureen A. Fager wrote:
> When I lived at the lake I noticed that many of the houses and other 
> building looked they were built years ago without adequate building 
> codes. Lots of fire traps then, and lots of fire traps now I would 
> suspect. There are a lot rentals there as the summer season draws alot 
> of seasonal workers. I left in '86 and never, ever heard the phrase 
> "defesible space" until a few years ago here in Reno. The fire in 
> Tahoe has a number of causes--very dry, hot weather, old buildings, a 
> town built in a forest, heck SLT doesn't even have sidewalks for 
> crying out loud! To place blame on "psuedo-environmentasitis" 
> (whatever those are) makes no sense.
>
> I'd like to suggest you condsider putting some of that energy into 
> finding out how you might donate food and other items to the fire 
> victums. There are lots of displaced pets that need food amd foster 
> homes. Real help, not overblown retoric is needed.
>
> Cheers,
> Maureen
> My motto: No bones to fix in '07 either!
> "...we are pilgrims together, wending our way through an unknown 
> country; home." Fra Giovanni


--

“It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how 
smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong” Richard 
Feynman, Nobel Laureate in Physics


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