inBOIL

One year a fire came so close to my house that ashes were falling on us. This summer there were several fires near my parents' house, and the air smelled like smoke for weeks.

As far as prescribed burns go, those are fairly expensive, because a lot of people have to be involved to make sure the fire doesn't get out of control. Yes, destructive wildfires are more expensive, but the bureaucrats don't generally have to budget money for those, or justify the spending beforehand. The money that the government spends to assist property owners is viewed as a one-time emergency expenditure, not as a recurring cost. Until this changes, prescribed burns will continue to be less common than they should be.

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And you believe Bush and the liberals and divorced parents and gays and blacks and the Christian right and fossil fuels and Xbox are all to blame, meanwhile you yourselves create an ad where your kid hits you in the head with a baseball and you don't understand the message that the problem is you.