FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Could Indiana witness the magnitude of wildfires in California? The short answer is no. WANE 15 spoke with Fort Wayne Fire Department Assistant Chief, Jonathan Flickinger and Allen County Director of Homeland Security, Bernie Beier who say that it comes down to topography, vegetation, and residential and commercial development. California's mountainous landscape offers significant obstacles to fighting fires. According to Beier, terrain plays the biggest role in fire response. Homes are sometimes on terraced lots, scattered along hills covered in dry vegetation, tall trees, and fences — all fuel for fire. This all makes fighting fires especially difficult for California fire crews. Central and northern Indiana is mostly flat, making fire response quicker. "If you were to get a single house fire and it catches a couple trees in the right conditions, it can spread to other homes," said Beier. "The difference in Indiana is that it's common so the the fire departments prepare for that. They put water on the neighboring, exposed houses to make sure they do not catch fire." But in California, fire teams have to navigate miles of roads between homes in the hills. Fire spreads through vegetation and fences, sometimes moving faster than crews can manage. "So out there, fire can't be in preventive position house by house, only neighborhood by neighborhood," said Beier. Rural and heavily forested areas, mainly in southern Indiana, have dense undergrowth which makes them susceptible to fire in dryer seasons like summer and fall. Fires in places like the Hoosier National Forest, Brown County, and others surrounded by trees could result in the loss of a few nearby homes or buildings, according to Beier. This is why burn bans are in place when conditions are dry. Still, these fires would not reach even near the scale of those in California. Flickinger says smaller towns with no municipal water supply provide challenges. He assures that plenty of water would be brought out to these areas with each engine providing a minimum of 750 gallons of water. "So you look at our local area, we are able to support our jurisdiction and if something did start to happen that's out in more of a rural area, all the nearby entities will work together to try to solve it," said Flickinger. Additional factors are drought and wind. According to the National Weather Service, winter is California's "wet season." However, this season has been particularly dry, with much of southern California experiencing moderate drought and some smaller areas experiencing severe drought. The only areas of drought in Indiana currently are in Lagrange and Steuben County. In California, Santa Anna winds bring hot and dry winds down from inland mountains to the coast. This pushes warm air into the valleys, sometimes causing fires. On Thursday, wind gusts near Los Angeles were around 60-80 mph. In the mountains, gusts were up to 100 mph. On the contrary, in Indiana, winds are typically strongest in the summer and are often a result of severe thunderstorms.