Some disasters are not perceived to be so until what was a simple 'grass fire' becomes a full-blown creature generating lots of heat and its own winds. When it becomes a disaster, that's when things go to hell in a basket really quickly, and creating order from chaos takes time, training and cooperation.

There was a big forest fire near Slave Lake, Alberta about eight years ago. People were angry with the fire department there because they lost some houses. Of course, they had brush/bush/dry grass/trees right up to their domiciles, despite many notices advising that in the event of fire those very things would lead the fire to their door. The effect of fire at the urban/rural interface can be mitigated with pre-planning (in this case cutting back the brush, etc). It should also be noted that forest fire firefighters do a very different job than their fellow structure fire firefighters--very different.

Seems the situation has improved there, Amos. That is great news.