Santa Margarita River Valley

This is the view from my brother's patio across the river valley to the hills. Fallbrook used to grow most of the Haas avocados in the country. About ten years ago a major wildfire seriously damaged the trees and many of them  haven't  been replanted. This hill across from Rick and Meg was spared in the fire and is still producing avocados. The bright green trees are newly planted persimmons. It's only June and the landscape is already very dry and brown except for this one  healthy looking swathe of green.

Yesterday there was a grass fire in the hill just under the middle transmission tower. We sat and watched the helicopters dumping water and the tankers dropping pink fire retardant. There were 150 firefighters on the scene at one point, and they got it under control quite quickly. We passed another similar grassfire right next to the freeway on our way into Los Angeles last Saturday and could see the fireline being cut by firefighters lined up down the hill. 

It is reassuring to see how quickly crews are being mobilized to fight these fires and rapidly bring them under control, but it is also an unnerving reminder that there is really no such thing as fire season in California any more.
Cal Fire investigators have just announced that they have found poorly maintained PG&E lines responsible for igniting 10 of the sixteen fires that ignited in Sonoma County in October. I would like to have more details on how they reached this conclusion, since I really don't know how any amount of maintenance could have prevented what happened. Assigning 'blame' will just start many lawsuits which will wind their way through the courts for decades.... I would prefer to live with the heroic efforts made by firefighters and PG&E to fight the fires and get the power back on and not try to figure out how to blame somebody for what was basically an act of God...