It’s hard to judge what makes it worse- kills more people? Lasts a long time? Burns more acres? I’m optimistic that lots of rural towns have done significant work to reduce fuels around structures. I know my small NorCal town has done a whole lot of grubbing/burning this winter as part of a huge shaded fuel break project.

Sure seems like fire season is starting early this year though. But just how bad it is comes down to ignition sources - last year we had those crazy lightning storms that started many of the big fires in NorCal. It was really hard to keep track their names because so many of them started as a dozen fires that late merged into a huge complex.