Posted On: October 24, 2007, 1:12 pm CDT

Posted By: Bill Reed

SP should chill out. Bob's comments have merit. When you choose to live in a virtual "tinderbox", you should anticipate wildfires threatening your property with some regularity. "fire breaks" of cleared land around houses have already paid off in this fire. The real "natualists" don't want to disturb the natural setting. That's an assumption of risk if there ever was one. These folks need to look at alternative methods to protect their property. Maybe less flammable construction materials make sense. Or how about an exterior sprinkler system that could be activated when property is threatened. Sure it will cost money, but nothing compared to losing a multi-million dollar home and its contents.

If they wanted to get serious, somebody should coordinate an "early response plan" to draw aerial water dropping resources from surrounding states that could be mobilized when a fire first starts.........not after it gets a head of steam like this one. If they had such a plan and response, they could have prevented a lot of this damage. It's an annual event just like hurricanes and nobody's figured out how to deal with it. You would think they'd have realized that "there's no educational value in the second kick of a mule."