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Los Angeles Needs to Fireproof Communities, Not Just Houses

After the devastation of the Los Angeles fires, officials are ready to rebuild. But defending against future fires requires thinking about more than buildings.

Shouldn’t we as a society be able to weigh in on where and how people are building or rebuilding, so it’s safer and has less of an impact from a public funding perspective down the road? Burying power lines isn’t cheap, and those costs get passed on to utility customers, many of whom don’t live in areas at risk of wildfires. But these long-term investments require changing how people think about living in wildfire risk zones and accepting that more resilient communities come at a cost.

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