Who forced these people to live in houses that are 2 inches apart with roofs that can catch fire ?  

It is like the people who want to live among the trees.  Fine.  Know the risk.  People know wild fires happen where they are building among those trees.  Then they are shocked that the fire department can't keep their houses from burning down when a forest fire comes through.  

When people first settled and built a house they cut down almost all the trees around the house for several reasons.  One was to help keep their house from burning down if there was a forest fire.  

Will these people rebuild the same kind of houses again with the same kind of roofs ?  Yes.  Can't fix stupid.