It's worse in Woodside. I've got three friends who live on Hillside Drive, a tiny, narrow one-way street. The area is thoroughly overgrown with trees, bushes and most of it is dry as the proverbial bone. It's very pretty - but deadly.

A fire would get out of control so quickly as to force an immediate evacuation. BUT the route into and out of the area is so narrow / restricted that MOST of the people would probably not get out.

Having lost an uncle in the Oakland Hills fire I'm tend to worry about things like this. Would I be afraid to live there? Let me sum it up thus: I would not even SPEND the night on Hillside Drive and I'm nervous going up there for a three-hour singing rehearsal.