It was worse last year, because of the high winds - gusts up to 70mph. My old home was 3 miles from the foothills, and we were getting embers flying by, I heard the fires across the valley were also started from the embers flying across.
This year is large because of the inaccessibility of the mountain area, and like ack-ack said, some areas that haven't burned in 60+ years....some up too 100+ years.