A house burning in LA

I just saw this sad posting, apparently from Thomas Hawk:

http://friendfeed.com/thomashawk/35c45c14/this-is-my-parents-property-on-fire-in-big

The photo shows his parents' home burning. This is really sad and the family has my condolences.

Is it impossible to stop these fires? Should we have intentional burns? What is the history of such burns? I live in the Berkeley hills...am I dooomed to lose my own home? All of these questions will run through my head repeatedly when I lay down to sleep tonight.