Almost four years to the week from the Cedar Fires , San Diego is again the center of a firestorm. For me personally, this one was both nearer and farther away.

Good friends have been staying with us all week, unable to move back into their heavily damaged Rancho Bernardo  neighborhood. Their house has survived but all around them destruction has visited and left its cruel calling cards. If we've learned anything about the rebuilding process from the previous conflagration, it's that it will be years before those destroyed homes will be replaced. And much of what they lost is irreplaceable, no matter how many kings’ horses and men  are called on to help them.

The response of the firefighters , police, and public officials has been much improved. Communication between different agencies and cities was clearly better. A reverse 911 system  warned many residents that flames were headed their way, but by no means were the warnings given to everyone who needed to hear them. My friends were warned with that most intimate and American of all emergency notifications: a neighbor knocking on the door at 4 in the morning. They received no call, but managed to evacuate in a hail of embers.

The incessant finger pointing of four years ago has been largely replaced by pats on the back and kudos, and much is well-deserved. The local news agencies'  shotgun approach to covering the fires and evacuations was mostly effective in getting important information to the residents of the afflicted communities, but you could miss a lot if you weren’t both internet and media savvy . Some of the best information came from residents being interviewed about what they knew. As such, it seems to me that Journalism should no longer be an elective course in our school systems. If you don’t know how to evaluate the utility of different information streams, you will likely pay a high price in ignorance and frustration — or perhaps worse.

Blogs may be good for getting some facts out, but the lessons from this fire will require a more substantial hearing. Perhaps my handlers will allow me to revisit this topic weeks from now, after the smoke clears and some clarity returns to the skies surrounding San Diego.