Defensible space is crucial. Sounds like what saved their house was defensible space and a metal roof.

My neighbor has a cabin up in the mountains. During the pandemic he and his brother spent a lot of time clearing brush, nearby trees, etc to make their cabins safer. Turns out wind blew a tree into a power line which started a fire. And tho’ the fire got close, their cabins were spared. LoL, also they had a neighbor who put the wifi SSID and Password on a sign outside his cabin. So the firefighters, in the area for another fire, were always nearby checking their email, etc. When that fire started there were a whole bunch of fire fighters on it before 2 hours had gone by. Remember to help those who might be able to help you.

A guy I talked with had bought a house in a forested area. The house had a cistern that collected water off the roof. He set up a pump, and one of those big irrigation ‘water cannon’ things. If he has to evac., then he’ll flip a switch, which will drench his house and the surrounding area till the cistern is empty.

Unsurprisingly, California and other western states have a lot of information available about creating a defensible space and home hardening, if it’s something someone wanted to do elsewhere.