“The last thing we want to do is put anybody at an inconvenience,” said Officer Ian Hoey, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, which oversees highway closures during fires. “But human life is going to come first. If somebody is potentially in danger, that’s going to determine whether there’s going to be a closure of a road.”

Fortunately the fires this year have not had the destructive, deadly force of last year, so there have not been as many logjams on roadways. Still, the impact has been felt.

When the Palisades fire hit last week, Donna Marie Marzullo, 55, said the sole road up to the skin care spa she owned was closed.

“You definitely have to go on living your life, but it is fearful,” she said.

As a construction contractor, Justin Corey said he traveled throughout Southern California to do jobs. He has had to plan his routes carefully around closures and detours. A recent commute took an hour longer than usual because drivers were gawking at smoke-filled hills, he said.

Mr. Corey, 35, had a much scarier encounter with wildfires on Thursday when he had to evacuate his house in San Bernardino in the early hours of the morning as a blaze came racing down Waterman Canyon. A neighbor banged on his door at 2:30 a.m., and when he looked outside, the hills were red and there were palm trees on fire less than 100 yards from his low-slung home. He and his wife quickly got their three children and three dogs into a car and headed downhill to safety.