Yana Valachovic is trying to soften the blow

Politico

14-03-2025

With help from Alex Nieves and Jeremy B. White
FIGHTING FIRE WITH LANDSCAPING: Yana Valachovic is at the forefront of trying to get Californians to adapt to fire.
Valachovic, a University of California fire researcher and adviser to two fire-prone Northern California counties, turns into a detective when she visits the aftermath of a wildfire-turned-urban-conflagration, looking for clues on how the fire spread and the ripple effects of small actions people took to protect their property, from new vents to paved entryways.
She's now pushing for tighter landscaping rules within the first five feet of a home as part of a working group at the state Board of Forestry, which is picking the previously paused rules back up after a directive from Gov. Gavin Newsom last month.
She toured the Eaton and Pacific Palisades fire footprints in January and wasn't particularly heartened by what she saw. POLITICO caught up with her to talk about her observations and the heavy task of climate adaptation.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Were these fires any different than past fires?
Eaton and Palisades had a lot of wind driving the fire behavior, and that's similar to the Tubbs Fire, the Camp Fire, the Marshall Fire, all of which took in its path a lot of homes.
I didn't anticipate that there would be as many [firefighting] resources already pre-staged in advance of the weather event. I saw many details that indicate that people had been at the home at some point and tried to do something to prevent fire spread to the structure, or did some amount of suppression, and there was way more of that than I've seen in other fires.
What did you see exactly?
The clues are pretty prominent. I would see evidence that someone had moved a doormat that might have showed signs of ignition away from the structure. I saw dozens of gates that had been cut, kicked, lifted off their hinges and then the gate thrown off and away from the property.
You can also see signs of community members and residents trying to do things, so buckets left in the yard, or a hose reel from a pump that someone may have had and they were pumping water out of their pool. It shows that set of desperate actions and choices that people were having to make before they left.
Did you see any examples of home hardening that made a difference?
I'm trying to put it in a positive light. I think people did things for other reasons that have co-benefits associated with fire. Having your roof up-to-date and well-maintained is really important. I saw examples where people replaced their windows [with] tempered glass that has three times the heat resistant properties. I did see a few examples where folks had done some retrofitting to their vents. A new best practice is to upgrade to some vents that meet standards related to both flame and heat resistance, or as an interim step to add an additional layer of smaller metal mesh screening.
The zone zero rules, which would ban flammable material within five feet of a structure in fire-prone areas, are back on the agenda. Will they go through this time, and why?
I think the time is right. I think there's a lot of interest broadly in changing fire vulnerabilities and trying to help Californians navigate through this new reality of the much higher likelihood of a fire exposure than we've experienced historically, and to help in the insurance space, because if we can reduce some of the hazard, then that will lower the risk and increase the likelihood of a better outcome.
California's politicians have been under political heat for overregulation, not underregulation, in light of the fires. Is adding requirements a smart move?
I think the biggest thing is you can't unknow something. And we have very strong evidence that what's in the first five feet really impacts whether a building's going to survive or not when you have a wildfire with wind behind it. We can't unknow that, and if politicians do nothing in regard to that, I think that's untenable for them.
How do you address concerns about costs?
There's a lot that's in the DIY space that's possible. I think the question really is, how do you refinish around the house to meet your aesthetic standards? And that is, to me, where the cost mostly lies.
What I think homeowners want to see is that when they come home, there's some beauty, there's some color. Maybe you don't want to see your foundations, but that is this kind of softening between the street and the structure. And I think that can be still done visually by pulling those plants a little farther away from the house.
These retrofits and new landscaping are some of California's most prominent physical examples of climate adaptation. How do you bring people along?
I think we need to lead with an empathetic heart, but also be honest about communicating what's at risk and what the possibilities are and how we can make a difference to adapt to the fire environment that we're in.
Smokey Bear is for forest fires. Do you have a nomination for a new mascot for this era of wildfire education?
Maybe a red-tailed hawk? They have exceptional eyesight — maybe we could say visionary — and they are adaptable and thrive in many habitats. In this moment we need to think and live differently. — CvK
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SPEAKING OF FIRE: Katie Porter immediately staked some ground on the property insurance problem in her first campaign event after she announced her candidacy for California governor in 2026.
Speaking at a big Democratic club in Orange County on Thursday, Porter said 'the next governor is going to have to head-on tackle the home insurance problem.'
One of her big ideas: getting the state involved as a backstop.
'I do think that the state may have a role in thinking about wildfire risk,' Porter said in response to a moderator's question. 'Reinsurance, insuring the insurer, that is a way that California could come into some of this.'
She added a word of caution about 'learning lessons' from other government backstops, noting that the federal government's National Flood Insurance Program isn't solvent. She also mentioned incentivizing home hardening and recruiting more firefighters to make California a more enticing place for insurance companies.
'We also need to think about bigger umbrella ways to bring in private insurers and keep them here at a rate that makes homeowners insurance affordable,' she said. — CvK, JBW
AND DON'T FORGET THE CURRENT COMMISSIONER: Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara provisionally approved a 22 percent emergency rate hike for State Farm today.
The state's largest insurer, with 16 percent of the market, had asked for the emergency hike to stave off a credit downgrade after the Los Angeles fires, which it called the costliest disaster in its history. The company has been in deep financial trouble for years, fueling its 2023 decision to stop writing new policies in California.
State Farm executives have said that the emergency rate hike wouldn't be enough for the company to start writing new policies again, but that it was probably enough to avoid non-renewals through 2025.
Lara scheduled a full rate hearing for April 8, at which State Farm will have to justify its request with more data or else issue refunds. — CvK
BUYER'S REMORSE: Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly is ditching his Tesla.
The Democrat announced the move today in a post on X, just days after Trump turned the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom to support Elon Musk as the company's stock plummets.
Kelly in a one-minute video said he couldn't drive the car without thinking about the damage Musk's Department of Government Efficiency — tasked with slashing federal spending — has done to the government, including the firing of veterans. Kelly is a retired U.S. Navy captain.
'Elon Musk kind of turned out to be an asshole, and I don't want to drive a car built and designed by an asshole,' Kelly said.
Trump and his conservative allies like Sean Hannity are trying to boost Tesla, which faces international protests amid Musk's involvement in right-wing politics. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that she's opening an investigation into cases of vandalism at Tesla dealerships.
Democrats want their own investigation. Four senators, including California's Adam Schiff, sent a letter to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on Thursday asking it to probe the White House lawn episode. — AN
— California snowpack is still below average, despite this week's storm.
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— Assemblymember Tasha Boerner wants to go to the ballot to refocus the California Public Utilities Commission on affordability.