[dc396]

> And why is California uniquely fire prone?

Combination of CA's climate (mediterranean), which leads to hot/dry summers exacerbated by global warming, natural ecology that evolved to handle that climate and fires (e.g., lodgepole pines can't reproduce unless a fire cracks open pine cones to release seeds into ash beds), the topology that funnels winds off the deserts, and probably most importantly, people, either because of building in places that have lots of fires or because they cause the fires directly or indirectly (transmission lines not buried, lack of control fires, arson, etc.)

[Jblx2]

Is there a way to quantify how much more of a fire risk California is compared to say Utah (which looks to have about the 4th lowest electric rates (and an abundance of conifers)).

[dc396]

California has 11x the population of Utah, with California having around 250 people per square mile and Utah having 40 people per square mile. This probably plays more into the fire risk than the number of pine trees.