As fast as this fire was moving with the storm winds? My understanding the way this particular fire moved such efforts wouldn't have been as so successful. Soaking the roof is going to save you from falling embers, but if fire consumes other parts of the structure, that doesn't help. Saw it in the Rockaways after Sandy with a fast moving fire.

<strike>Even so, if I am wrong, then I have no problem saying I stand corrected.</strike>

Not that I'm wrong, but looking back my previous post was written in a definitive manner, and that's where I am wrong. Different conditions in the stated cases, and not all in the aforementioned Cali case were successful. No one can make a definitive statement on the matter.