Coffey Park was a quintessential California suburban residential development on the outskirts of the city of Santa Rosa. In October 2017, a wildfire—sparked by a tree limb that fell onto a power line a dozen miles away and driven by the fierce Diablo Winds—burned through Coffey Park within hours. The fire was at once a revenant from the past and portent of a terrible new era. Later that year, even more devastating wildfires burned through suburban and urban areas in Southern California. It was the worst fire season in recorded history in the state. Until the next year. And again, in 2020. This chapter looks at the collision of human and natural forces in California that have brought us to this point: policies that have brought exurbia deeply into the wildland urban interface (WUI); lessons from the past we have failed to heed, including the history of natural and prescribed fire; the Santa Ana and Diablo winds, which have fanned some of the worst fires; and the impact of human-driven climate change. Through research and interviews, along with chronicling the changing relationship between people and place, I look at how we need to rethink that connection to where we live.