1. Santa Ynez Reservoir right above Palisades was empty for the past year, depriving fire hydrants of water. (State incompetence)

2. La City defunded fire department removing 100 fire trucks from service due to maintenance. (City Incompetence)

3 Severe fire warnings reported days in advance of the fire. Rather than take precautions and position fire trucks and equipment etc as was done in the past, the Mayor flew off to Ghana. (City Incompetence, Fire Department incompetence (but partly because of cut budget)

4. Forest maintenance has been stopped. (State incompetence)

Competent management is needed or even worse can be expected in future.

If you actually want to know the answer to this question, this is a wonderful and well-researched book on the topic.

https://tendingthewild.com/tending-the-wild/