There’s a nightmarish October surprise potentially looming for the bucolic Marin County community of Mill Valley: a wildfire of such destructive scope that it obliterates the entire town.
Mill Valley’s residents are anything but paralyzed by this existential threat, however. Following examples set by citizens of other wildfire-vulnerable countries, they’re rapidly ramping up their defenses against disastrous “megafires.”
Nestled against the flanks of Mount Tamalpais, Mill Valley is characterized by steep gradients, heavy vegetation, narrow, twisting roads that make both evacuation and firefighter response difficult, and topographical “fire fingers” — narrow gorges up the slopes of Mount Tam that can act as chimneys, concentrating and accelerating flames…