MATT WELCH has a piece on fires and insurance in California. It’s a good piece, but I wonder if one partial solution would be for insurance requirements to be more intrusive.

About ten years ago, Buzz Aldrin’s neighborhood in Laguna Beach was swept by fires. Buzz — being a smart guy — had removed flammable vegetation from the immediate vicinity of his house, and quite some distance on the downslopes. His neighbors hadn’t. When the smoke cleared, stately Aldrin manor was still standing, while his neighbors’ homes were, um, toast.

In the TV footage that I saw, the burning homes were hard up against burning trees. I wonder if people shouldn’t be required to take Buzz-like precautions if they want fire insurance. Seems like a reasonable requirement to me.