As a SoCal city dweller, large scale fires were mostly a non issue as long as you live in urban areas. The response is always quick enough to prevent entire neighborhoods from getting rolled over, as the system is designed to handle surges by sharing resources. However, much like with hospitals dealing with outbreaks, there is usually an upper limit to how much they can do.
There has never been anything like this in modern history because this fire was a consequence of climate change. Excessive dryness and powerful winds created the wildfire equivalent of a flash flood, leaving firefighters little time to react. They were already fighting a war on the coast, but the storm created a blitzkrieg that descended onto densely populated areas before they could properly redeploy.
This is just speculation, but I suspect that death toll isn't in the hundreds or thousands because they prioritized evacuation over saving property. The areas hit were more urban than I ever thought possible, and it really could've been far worse given how quickly everything happened. The budget cuts didn't help, but this event was so extreme that I doubt a bigger budget could've saved many homes. In this case, the wrath of nature against ALL of humanity is most responsible,