Homes built near wilderness complicate firefighting efforts

forced 20,000 people from their homes. Most residents were cleared to return on Tuesday, but the flames kept burning in the rugged terrain where many houses are tucked into canyon lands.

Laurent Lacore evacuated on Saturday, the last of his family to leave.

“The flames were right behind our backyard,” he said.

He returned Monday to find the house and everything around it had been saved. He could see a line of red fire retardant that had been dropped from the air to halt the fire’s approach.

“Everything is fine,” he said. “Even all of the trees are there.”

Firefighters saved about 2,000 homes in the fire’s first three days, Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp said.

Besides the financial burden, there’s also a human cost. Three firefighters died in Washington state last year and 19 perished in Arizona in 2013 while battling fires in the area that scientists call the wildland-urban interface.

“We find that funerals for firefighters are always well attended,” said Larry Sutton, assistant director of operations for the Forest Service at the fire center. “To me, the best tribute to firefighters is a fire-adapted community.”

What he mostly sees is the opposite, he said, including areas destroyed by wildfire that get rebuilt with little regard for the next blaze.