The way L.A. thinks about fires is all wrong, two experts say. They explain how to do better

Soon after catastrophic fires swept through Pacific Palisades and Altadena, wildfire experts Stephen Pyne and Jack Cohen were in high demand. “Uncontrollable extreme wildfires are inevitable,” he wrote five years ago, “however, by reducing home ignition potential … we can create ignition resistant homes and communities.” The Alphabet Streets neighborhood in Pacific Palisades was scorched in the Palisades fire. Pyne: Part of the prevailing narrative, at least in the fire community, is that we really know enough about fire and that it’s the public and politicians who have to be educated. A few years ago, a fire in Colorado was described as a “300-foot-high tsunami of flame.” Fire doesn’t spread that way. When our agencies, institutions and politics recognize we have no choice in controlling inevitable extreme wildfires, and recognize that community wildfire risk is a structure ignition problem, then we can create ignition-resistant, fire-spread-resistant communities.