I’ve Been Wondering, What Could Have Saved Los Angeles From Wildfires?

22 (unoriginal) ideas 💡listed below 👇.

Destruction in Los Angeles has reached cataclysmic levels. To the families who’ve lost their homes or loved ones, you have my deepest sympathy. To emergency responders—your tireless efforts command respect. For those breathing the toxic, smoke-filled air laced with lead, asbestos, and chemicals, please mask up immediately. California remains under red flag warnings, with uncontained fires threatening communities. The danger persists, and misinformation spreads unchecked. This message cannot wait.

The Los Angeles fires reveal the harsh reality of living with centuries of Santa Ana winds and fires, compounded by modern human flammable landscapes, accidents, and arson. These winds, documented by Spanish settlers as far back as the 1500s and Indigenous histories before that, are unchangeable forces of nature. The Santa Ana winds, notorious for 100-mph gusts, have been thoroughly recorded over the past century. The issue isn’t the wind or fire—it’s our failure to adapt and mitigate their impact.

What has really changed is the increased density of both fuel and humans. Two photos below are Pacific Palisades 1920s vs 2000s. Also during the last 80 years, Palisades homes tripled from 1,000 to 3,000 sq ft, more add-ons, more floors, MORE FUEL.

We cannot go backwards on population density but we do need advanced policy and technology to fight fire with fire. My hope is that there are solutions previously ignored that help us completely reevaluate how we prepare and defend from catastrophic fires, as well as other apocalyptic weather. 

Here are 22 ideas I’ve collated from unconventional thinkers, commentators and experts. Some are obvious, while others might seem radical—but tackling big challenges requires bold, unconventional thinking. 

1. Clear, singular Fire Dept mission protecting all life/property/environment–absolute avoidance of political, social or religious matters.
2. Solve the homeless, mental illness and illegal immigration crises–a healthy citizenry is vested in protecting the community.
3. Increase monitoring potential arsonists similar to the approach for counter-terrorism
4. Pre-emptive brush/tree-fuel clearing, yes we need to “rake the forest” and administer prescribed burns
5. Mandatory defensible-space zones between homes and vegetation/trees
6. Fire retardant hardening on each home in fire risk zones
7. Rooftop sprinklers on each home in fire risk zones
8. Undergrounding power lines in fire risk zones
9. Military (Defense Readiness Condition) Defcon-like alert and comms system, including annoying Amber Alerts
10. Robust reservoirs, piping and pump systems with 24/7 public monitoring/alerts & timestamped database shared on social media (for any armchair analyst to question)
11. Power grid & transmission lines 24/7 public monitoring/alerts & timestamped database shared on social media (for any armchair analyst to question)
12. Fire detecting satellite & drones on-station at the same investment and readiness level as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East
13. Fire detecting fixed-ground sensors in every backyard or every quarter-acre 
14. Mandatory fire extinguishers in every home
15. Fire Dept drills deployed across high risk neighborhoods 52 weeks per year
16. Autonomous drone wildfire suppression rapid-response
17. Forward deploy fire brigades in neighborhoods during Defcon-high
18. Forward deploy police at hiking trailheads during Defcon-high
19. Cloud seeding upstream snowpack for water supplies e.g. USA or local rain e.g. Indonesia
20. Train, incentivize and extend Neighborhood Watches to deploy to hiking trails during Defcon-high, keeping an eye out for arsonists or accidents
21. Establish a federal, military-grade Weather Taming Force (WTF) to operate in high-risk weather zones (fire, hurricane, etc.) and scale resources during Defcon-high. 
22. Eliminate or modify any bureaucracies that dampen the above mission and tactics

When you hear someone mindlessly say nothing could have been done, share this list with them.

Most of these ideas demand an uncompromising approach to policy, funding, and execution. In many cases, the best solutions may be subtractive, not additive–we are witnessing firsthand results from strangulation by overregulation. This is where lean, transparent governance becomes critically important. When catastrophe strikes and accountability is murky, it’s a glaring signal that the system is fundamentally broken.

This is a military-grade challenge. The 2018 California wildfires left an indelible mark: 104 lives lost, 24,000 structures destroyed, and $27 billion in damages. It drove me to grasp the scale of the problem and ask what actions I could take. At the time, climate grifters flooded the conversation, peddling solutions in search of problems. I admit, I got caught up in it too—“expert consensus” seemed unassailable. But hard truths have since emerged, and much has changed.

After the 2003 Columbia disaster, the space program was written off as unsafe, costly, and unproductive. Then Elon transformed the industry, cutting costs while improving safety. One small but powerful example: Starlink, deployable anywhere in hours, proved critical after the hurricane in Asheville, North Carolina. SpaceX has launched more space missions in the last 12 months, than the world has in the preceding history. So, who’s building the SpaceX of fire prevention—achieving the unthinkable at a fraction of the cost? This is the urgent innovation we need.

Insurance companies saw the fire risks clearly. They modeled the dangers and canceled coverage for entire neighborhoods months before the 2025 wildfires. How did they foresee what local, state, and federal governments either missed or, worse, knew and ignored? The answer lies in incentives. Those with financial accountability act decisively, while bureaucrats, insulated from consequences, often fail. This is a profound lesson.

We must break free from party politics and focus on issues with a common sense merit-based approach to solutions. The inefficiencies of bloated bureaucracy stretch far beyond wildfire prevention—symptoms of a systemic decline. We are witnessing the conditions for collapse: spiraling national debt, runaway inflation, a healthcare and insurance industry locked in attrition with its customers, and government propaganda embedded in once-trusted institutions.

If you think empires can’t crumble, history says otherwise. A harsh reality looms, and it’s only a matter of time before it lands in your backyard. Sadly for some, it’s already here.