Generally, fires that start close to populated areas are reported quickly, in my experience. And are responded to fairly well. Last year, a slow moving fire in

Generally, fires that start close to populated areas are reported quickly, in my experience. And are responded to fairly well. Last year, a slow moving fire in Montana that started from lightening ended up costing my parents' home after it made a small move, out of town hotspots made a shit call and lit a back burn on a Western facing slope, and then just watched it all burn down in the heat of afternoon and the height of eastern blowing winds. In other words, they lit the fire, expecting it to go west, but hot, dry winds blowing to the east blew it right onto the areas they sought to protect. Lawsuit is still pending, but my parents are at least covered by insurance, but the FWS also showed growes negligence that day, in my opinion. Prior to that experience, we'd had 3 or 4 lightning strikes in the area. All reported locally, and crews were on site within 48 hours. Difference was, this time, the strike was in very difficult terrain, they couldnt get to it, so they let it burn. They put in fire breaks and ran hoses for sprinklers along the firebreak, but they didn't even have the lines charged for the sprinklers when they lit the back burn. Then, like I said, they just watched while homes burned that they had setup to protect.