Is it any wonder that those horrendous bush and forest fires in the US spread so quickly as most of the houses have cedar and/or redwood tiles for roofs, which are tinder dry, so burst into flame as live ashes are blown to them! Also many have the above tiles as sidings – exterior wall coverings.
When I lived for nine years in California, I helped a builder to fix those tiles to a few roofs after fixing plywood sheets and then black building paper. All fodder for quick fires! When I was staying with my cousin in Los Angeles, I inspected a couple of house frames nearby and I was shocked at the shoddy work, as I had been a top builder in NZ for 22 odd years.
The US certainly has its share of huge fires, snowstorms, tornadoes and hurricanes etc so I have to repeat, ‘that those are the result of global warming' which cannot be denied.

Ernest Izett, Tauranga.