Unlike four years ago, when San Diego contractors and homebuilders diverted resources to help rebuild destroyed homes, they're now constructing entire business plans around the effort.
Since the 1980s, the city's explosive growth has pushed its boundaries into more fire-prone areas. But its investment in fire resources didn't follow suit.
While thousands of San Diegans were staying with friends or in shelters last week to escape the devastating fires, some landlords raised the lease prices on their rentable properties.
The fires also spurred renewed calls to expand federal duties to protect the American West by purchasing costly firefighting equipment or intervening in the planning of local development.
That the region's fate remains at the whims of wind speeds and the humidity index more than the staffing or equipment appears to mark a new reality in local debates over fire readiness.
Why two smooth-talking Google whiz kids are staked out in an office in the county’s Emergency Operation’s Center and what it could mean for the future of wildfires.
