This is interesting from Robert Gottliebsen. 

Australian fire experts went to California a few years ago to give advice on the large fires that were impacting the US state at the time, with the experts identifying three main causes. 

An inquiry into the current terrible fires that are plaguing Los Angeles could do worse than examine the advice that the Australian fire experts gave US authorities at the time. 

1) Firstly, the experts concluded that California had underinvested in modern power transmission lines, and that old lines had likely caused the majority of the fires. 

2) The experts also found that forests were hard to access because of poor management, and that much of the fires were being tackled by city-trained firefighters who had not been taught how to fight bushfires.