We find ourselves in the season of the Witch fire.

Or scarier still, the season of the which fire?

Is it the Ranch or the Rice? The Canyon or the Cajon? The Grass Valley or the Buckweed?

With 15 major blazes erupting in a matter of hours last week, they blend into a heartbreaking montage of hellish flames, incinerated neighborhoods and the stunned, weary faces of survivors.

With seven people dead, 2,000 structures destroyed and almost a half million acres scorched in Southern California, we'd like to believe the worst of the fire season is behind us. But even those given to imbibing heavily of the firewater would have trouble convincing themselves of that.

Before any of these blazes were a gleam in Mother Nature's eye, the Ventura County Fire Department offered the public a series of seminars on preparing for wildfire season.

Topics covered are such things as what to do if you wake up at 3 a.m. and the sky outside your window is glowing like a marshmallow held too long over a campfire.

Or why it's best not to take that 40-pound bag of dog kibble as you evacuate.

Or how wide exactly your driveway must be to accommodate a fire truck.

You would think with our region in a withering drought and with the Day fire a recent memory, the information-hungry hordes would descend on each of these presentations.

You'd think. But for the July 26 event at the Camarillo City Hall, guess how many concerned citizens showed up?

Exactly one. The Bible speaks of three wise men. Camarillo is short a couple.

I know. I get it. Disasters are compelling. Preparations are snooze-inducing.

Who needs an Ambien when a sentence with the phrase "weed abatement ordinance" can render you comatose?

And it's hard to connect the dots between weed-whacking in May and firestorm fighting in October.

But perhaps you are asking yourself, as I am, this burning question.

Was it just dumb luck that spared Ventura County significant damage while San Diego County suffered devastation? Or was it something more tangible?

After all, both regions have ordinances requiring brush clearance within 100 feet of structures.

The purpose of this, fire-prevention experts say, is to modify the burn load — another one of those sleep-friendly phrases.

Basically, though, if a fire encounters a stand of native plants, then a watered lawn, then a stretch of ice plant, it never quite builds momentum.

The difference between San Diego and Ventura counties is that lawmakers here ran out of patience with scofflaws.

Residents here who don't cut it are fined and must pay the cost of having the brush abated for them.

They tried that in San Diego County, but folks got all fired up, said John Buchanan, the spokesman for the North County Fire Protection District.

Buchanan was kind enough to speak with me while working the Rice fire near Fallbrook.

Residents whose property falls in his district were mad when they were billed for brush clearance.

They complained they weren't given enough notice, and the practice was stopped.

They were mad again on Friday. This time residents were furious with fire officials that they were not allowed back into the area to see if their homes survived.

The Rice fire has consumed 206 homes, including 120 mobile homes, two commercial buildings and 40 outbuildings.

Capt. Barry Parker of the Ventura County Fire Department said our brush clearance rules are the strictest in this fire-prone state.

When I caught up with him on Friday, he was on the fire line of the Harris blaze in southern San Diego County.

Parker has seen some evidence homeowners there had let brush grow up to the foundations of their houses. Tree limbs rested on their roofs.

"I have to admit I'm a little shocked," he said.

One man who lost his home in hard-hit Rancho Bernardo was quoted in a newspaper account as saying, "This is the kind of thing that happens to other people. You don't think it will happen to you."

And we all feel that way. Except, maybe, that one person who showed up for the fire-prevention presentation back in July.

It is said in jest that California has four seasons. They are fire, flood, earthquake and riot.

But unless we learn to take every measure to protect ourselves, I would revise that.

They are fire, flood, earthquake and regret.

On the Net: You can download the Ventura County Wildfire Action Plan 2007 work book at fire.countyofventura.org. Or you can call the Ventura County Community Education Office at 389-9769 and request a presentation to your homeowners association or civic group.

— E-mail this Star columnist at ccason@VenturaCountyStar.com.