The Los Angeles fires that have damaged more than 12,000 structures are a reminder of a new but growing reality for Americans living in hotter, drier and more fire-prone areas – the need to create defensible space and fire-harden their homes.

This doesn't mean cutting down every tree and surrounding a home with a desert of pea gravel, wildfire safety and insurance experts are careful to say. Instead it's implementing the tenets of this new-to-many concept to give homeowners in fire-prone areas a fighting chance when firestorms swoop down on their neighborhoods.

"You can maintain the essence of your esthetic and still create a defense," said Roy Wright, President and CEO of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.

He cautioned that none of this is meant to blame victims of these horrific fires. Why some houses burn and others survive isn’t always obvious and can seem capricious and haphazard, despite preparation and mitigation.

"I'm not here to tell that defensible space would have changed the Pacific Palisade fire," he said. "When you're dealing with sustained winds of 50 to 70 miles an hour on a downward slope. you have all the ingredients of conflagration."