Sarah Bohannon

For Bay Area residents, fire is on the ballot

Dan Detzner watched in shock as the fire spread rapidly into Sleepy Hollow, a neighborhood near his home.  In three hours, the flames engulfed 1,500 homes in Orinda, a suburb of Oakland. Detzner’s house could have been one of them – but the fire wasn’t real. It was a catastrophe model shown by the district’s fire chief. Later, the chief walked Detzner, a retired professor, and his neighbors around their properties to point out vegetation that could easily catch fire. …