Angelenos have paid a heavy toll with the recent fires
But what if their fire trucks had to as well?
Image: Tooley Street fire, London, 1861.1
The recent fires in Los Angeles, California, have startled not only the Angelenos who live there, but us as well, on the other side of the globe. Many years ago, I knew someone who lived in Los Angeles and who later moved up to Washington, and to Oregon, who, shall we say, knows about such things. I asked him about US construction methods: Why do they build homes out of wood? He answered, Because we have a lot of it. I asked Does it not burn very readily? He answered Yes. I asked Why don’t they then make homes out of brick? and he said Because they don’t.
