The economic damage from ruined buildings, evacuations, burned property/vehicles/etc is another factor. Its like living in a cheap wooden house in tornado valley. I'm not for "banning trees", there should be just a safety zone which separate vulnerable urban/suburban housing and forest zones. That way fire will not become an emergency in principle. I'm just advocating for a system where firebreaks are several km wide and prevent winds from spreading fire material(which short firebreaks fails to do). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebreak (this is the general concept ) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensible_space_(fire_control...