EDITORIAL:

This is not Katrina.

We — Southern Californians, Orange County residents — are not surprised. We’ve seen this before (although, perhaps, not to this degree). We’ve felt the Santa Ana winds. We know about the drought conditions.

They — from area officials to the governor to the president — have not denied, delayed or pointed fingers.

And most importantly, our firefighters are performing tirelessly and heroically every step of the way.

The wildfires that have engulfed Southern California from Santa Barbara County to San Diego County, and which include more than 18,000 acres of scorched earth in Orange County, are, to be sure, a tragedy of epic proportions.

Several dead. Hundreds of thousands displaced. About 2,000 homes ruined.

But there is a silver lining: This is not a tragedy, in the form of human incompetence and neglect, upon a tragedy.

Quite the contrary.

What we have witnessed would soften the hardest of hearts.

In the Huntington Beach area alone:

 No less than four fire engines and 16 rescue workers have been dispatched to the Santiago Canyon fire northeast of Irvine.

“They probably haven’t slept in 40 hours,” Battalion Chief Bob Brown said at one point. Others were dispatched to the Malibu fire.

Meanwhile, the city makes due with thinned resources. If that’s not the definition of a good neighbor, we don’t know what is.

 Area hotels, motels and other facilities have taken in hundreds and possibly thousands of evacuees fleeing from fires in Orange and San Diego counties.

There were many other acts of kindness.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the space here to include them all.

But we can be heartened that during a disaster we have been prepared and we have responded.

Because of that, we can be hopeful.