Hugh D Safford

Yeah, I've heard similar things in my reporting, and I spoke to an expert too.

His name is Hugh Safford, and he's a retired former ecologist from the U.S. Forest Service, and he runs a fire ecology lab at UC Davis.

And he pretty much agreed on that point about raking.

Tree and grass litter, et cetera, around your home is one of the most important things you can do.

News of late is in Nevada and Washington State, where hundreds of homes have burned in dreaded urban wildfires.

I talked with Hugh Safford about this.

He's retired US Forest Service, and one thing he said really stuck out.

In these new mega fires, the homes become the fuel for the explosive growth, not the trees.