SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After devastating wildfires, including the deadliest in California history, lawmakers passed new rules in 2020 that say you have to get rid of flammable things like dead plants and wooden furniture that are within 5 feet (1.5 meters) of homes in high-risk areas.
The rules were set to start on January 1, 2023. Fires in Los Angeles have burned thousands of homes in what could be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. However, the rules haven’t been written yet. The state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection doesn’t have a set date for when they need to be done.
“It’s frustrating at every level of government,” said Democratic state Sen. Henry Stern, who wrote the bill with another group of politicians. “To be honest, I feel like I failed at it.”
The Palisades Fire destroyed most of the neighborhoods in those areas. People who live there must follow state rules to keep the areas around their homes free of flammable materials. These areas would have to follow the new rules because the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection considers them to have the highest fire risk. Hurricane-force winds spread the flames through the air, starting a fire that destroyed at least 5,000 homes in places like Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and Topanga Canyon.
It’s not clear how many homes would have been saved under the most recent plan, which would have given current homes three years to meet the rules. But a lot of experts say that clearing the area right around the homes would have made a difference.
study from the past led Steve Hawks, a former state firefighter who now works for an insurance industry study group that backed the law, to say, “We really feel that it would have made a difference” in some cases. “Of course there are no guarantees, especially when there are a lot of fires like these.”
Laws called “defensible space” say that people who live in areas that are prone to fire must keep the area around their homes clear of plants and other things that could catch fire. California already has some of the strictest and most reasonable rules about space in the West. In the 1960s, the state started requiring homeowners in high-risk areas to get rid of flammable items that were within 30 feet (9 meters) of their homes. In 2006, the rules were expanded to cover areas within 100 feet (30.5 meters) of buildings.
With the new law, things like brush, wooden fencing, furniture, sheds, and mulch are not allowed within 5 feet (1.5 meters) of houses. This is to make the area more “ember-resistant.” The goal is to get rid of anything that could catch fire from flying embers that hit the building and spread. Researchers and state officials say that sparks are to blame for 90% of the damage that wildfires do to buildings.
The zone-zero rule was passed with support from both parties after California had record-setting fires in 2017 and 2018. One of these fires destroyed more than 17,000 buildings and killed 85 people, destroying the town of Paradise.
Yana Valachovic, a fire scientist with the University of California’s Cooperative Extension in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, said that homes have a much better chance of surviving a wildfire if people follow defensible space requirements and other home-hardening tips, such as using vent covers to keep flying embers out. This week, she is helping CalFire look at the damage from the LA fires.
“I didn’t want to put a number on how much higher our survival rate will be,” she said. “But, you know, we need to do everything we can to switch things around.”
The Board of Forestry and Fire Protection said it is still in “the pre-rulemaking phase” while it looks for money to cover any costs that might come up because of the new rules. At a meeting in November, state officials said that the draft wording probably won’t be looked at by the board until late this year. However, CalFire has already asked homeowners to do this on its website. As part of a report on fire strategies that Gov. Gavin Newsom asked for in 2019, the agency suggested that zone zero standards be put into place.
Last year, lawmakers also passed a bill that gave existing homes three years instead of one year to meet the new rules once they were made official. Cities and homeowners in some places are already doing it on their own.
Edith Hannigan, executive officer of the board, told The Associated Press, “There are many parts to this complicated process to think about.” “The Board of Forestry and Fire Protection still thinks this is important, and staff are working hard to have a draft proposal ready to give to the Board as soon as possible.”
Kimiko Barrett, who wrote a 2024 study about the costs of retrofitting existing buildings in California, said that removing dead plants and other debris from a building’s roof and gutters and replacing bark with pea gravel are two of the best ways to deal with the problem. It might cost more to get a new wooden fence, but it helps protect a home more.
Barrett said, “The cost of doing nothing could be much, much higher.”
People have been talking about zone zero for ten years, but the idea isn’t always liked. Stern, a state senator whose home was destroyed in another fire in Los Angeles in 2018, said it’s hard to get his family to follow the rule. Stern said that his parents didn’t listen to his advice and didn’t do things like cut back the rosemary bush next to their house that he suggested.
He said, “I don’t know if people are going to see that as a headache.”
As a state assemblymember in 2020, U.S. Rep. Laura Friedman led the effort to pass the zone-zero rule. She said that putting it into effect “shouldn’t have taken years and years.” After that, she took questions to the state.
She said, “I hope that the state acts as quickly as the issue and these guidelines call for.”
According to the most recent draft, the rules would go into effect right away for new homes and give existing houses three years to comply.
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