Depends on where you are getting your perspective from.
How do you stop an arsonist? A terrorist? A lab worker who accidentally leaks a virus?
There are so many variables that it's difficult to perfectly predict and plan for any of these things. Most of the time it's reactive and that's sometimes the only way.
And then you forget to mention those people who say we overprepare or panic... where is the balance?
And why does everything have to be politicized? But again... that seems to be the only way people can deal with this stuff.
We knew a few days in advance that extreme and dangerous winds were coming. It was far too late to prepare in some ways, but there was certainly preparation that could have been done.
The Santa Inez reservoir, which would have been extremely useful for the palisades fire, has been empty since February 2024, apparently because the cover tore. Why was that not fixed and filled after 10 months? Incompetence.
We have resources to clear brush in high fire danger zones, and doing so could have mitigated the damage (maybe even made some properties insurable again!) But current CA ethos is let nature be nature instead of trying to protect people and property.
More could have been done well in advance, and perhaps there was some that could have been done with a few days of notice.
Contrast this with what the State is focused on.
High speed rail? Does anyone actually want to spend $150B on a high speed rail from Bakersfield to Merced 20 years in and with a few miles of track to show for it?
Homelessness? CA spent $24B on homelessness in the last 5 years and the problem is worse than ever.
Crime? It took a proposition to make shoplifting illegal again.
Education? We're around 23rd in the nation despite having by far the most resources of any state.
The politicians and their appointees just suck, plain and simple.
People with the means are fleeing CA and so are businesses. They no longer perceive the pros of CA to be enough to outweigh the cons of poor policy. And this unmitigated disaster of a fire is exactly what happens with poor policy.
The questions we should be asking are "how did we get here, who should be held responsible, what can we learn from this, how can we do better" Then develop a plan and make it happen.