One More Ding on Bureaucrats Taking Care of California’s Wildfire Problems

Finger pointing and lots of blame is being tossed at California legislators, Governor Gavin Newsom, elected officials in the city of Los Angeles and surrounding areas, and the bureaucrats in charge of not only fighting wildfires but preventing them.

The heart of the issue is the out-of-control wildfires that may end up having the ignominious title of being the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.

California used to have a “wildfire season.” Now that season runs all year long. Many Californians that are victims of the wildfires, or are watching these disasters unfold, wonder why more hasn’t been done to solve a problem that has tortured the state for a couple of decades.

The latest hit for bureaucrats has to do with requirements passed in 2020 that requires the clearing of combustibles that lie within 5 feet of a home. As an example, this would include dead plants and wooden furniture.

The rules — again, passed in 2020 — went into effect on January 1, 2023.

As it stands now, the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has yet to write the regulations. State Senator Henry Stern — a Democrat — said there is no timeline for when they’re going to be finished, or even have to be finished.

“It’s frustrating at every level of government,” Stern said. “I feel like a failure on it, being quite frank.”

Most of the neighborhoods now burning in the Los Angeles area — or have already burned — would be required to follow those still unwritten requirements because they’re listed as one of the highest wildfire risks in the state by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

California has lots of defensible space laws that aren’t enforced and often not followed by homeowners. State laws passed in the 1960s required homeowners in high risk areas to clear all flammable materials within 30 feet of their homes. In 2006 that law was expanded to 100 feet within the structures on the property.

Many are wondering how the state is enforcing those rules — if at all. The “if at all” probably applies to most of those rules. The Board of Forestry and Fire Protection is a good example of “if at all.” The board says it’s still in the “pre-rulemaking phase.”

Officials say they need money to take care of potential costs of the new requirements. The draft language will be taken up by the board later this year.

Source link: Associated Press — https://bit.ly/3Wsvm5g

Source link: Insurance Business America — https://bit.ly/4g8zFK4