Improved fire codes may not be enough to protect homes in fire-prone areas
Wildfires in the parched West struck in areas where development is occurring near forested areas that can become tinder boxes in severe droughts. Ray Rasker, executive director of Bozeman, Mont.-based Headwaters Economics, says these events require a national conversation about home-building in fire-prone areas, but most people "are completely distracted" by the effort to make rural homes more fire-resistant.