Same in Ausralla. I grew up in a fire prone area, we had fire breaks cut into the forest, were made to burn of leaf matter etc in our yards of the council came and did it etc etc.

Not now fire breaks, if a tree falls across the narrow roads there, they push it to the side of the ride creating a huge fuel load and new homes have to be 'one with the Forrest' and plant trees next to their homes. Its all deliberate. They had expert reports that warned them, they ignored it and then scrubbed them from the net.