Building in a fire-prone area should be no different from building in a flood plain or a hurricane alley:

We need to begin looking at fire the way we view rivers. No one should be permitted to construct homes in the “fire plain” any more than we permit home construction in a river flood plain. The flood plain is as much as a part of the river as the normal flow channel. And a similar situation exists for fires. There are many ecosystems where the likelihood of a fire in a hundred year period is extremely high—building homes in such “hundred year fire plains” is as foolish as building a house in a hundred year river floodway.

— Guest Opinion: George Wuerthner’s On the Range; Land Use Planning Must Address Wildfire Plain By George Wuerthner, New West, 18 June 2007

Seems simple enough. The article says that only Oregon has zoning laws similar to this. Insurance isn’t mentioned in the article, but one of the commenters brings up wildfire insurance, as in maybe homeowners can build in the woods, but they have to buy wildfire insurance. And maybe in some areas they can’t get that, either, and they just can’t build. Continue reading →