Editorial: The state lags on fire safety rules, but even common sense should limit combustibles near homes
In the unprecedented wind-driven fires of January, a fusillade of embers flew from burning hillside brush to neighborhoods, igniting houses and any fencing and furniture around them that would burn. Those flames spread to adjacent houses, and the winds propelled millions more embers through the air to more houses and yards. Whether more firefighters on the ground or water-spraying helicopters in the air or reservoirs could have staved off destruction, one thing is overwhelmingly clear to fire scientists: The time to start fighting fire is before it begins.
Toward that end, the California Legislature, in late 2020, passed Assembly Bill 3074, mandating that homes or occupied structures in areas most severely at risk of fire establish five feet of defensible space around them. The state already requires clearance of brush and dead leaves within 100 feet of houses. But this bill called for creating a zone of zero to five feet — or Zone Zero — around a house. This doesn't guarantee a home won't burn, but it offers the best defense a homeowner may have against embers headed their way.
Here's the problem: The 2020 law has yet to go into effect. The state's Board of Forestry and Fire Protection was charged with writing the rules and regulations for Zone Zero by January 2023. The board has had four years to work on this, and it's two years past the deadline.
At a time when fires are increasingly intense, that's not just ridiculous, that's irresponsible. Why the holdup? How long does it take to decide that homeowners really shouldn't have wooden fences or combustible shrubs within five feet of their homes? According to Christine McMorrow, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, the board is expediting its process. But there's a lot for board members to consider: "New Zone Zero rules will have financial implications for people so the focus right now is on what mitigations matter the most,' she said last week. The board also wants to provide an education plan to help people understand why they can't have that wood fence. 'We always want to push education over citation,' she said.
The biggest obstacle, apparently, is figuring out the specifics of what to allow and what to forbid. What shouldn't be allowed on a deck? What about allowable materials for the deck itself? Are doormats forbidden? Must all window frames be metal? Still, it shouldn't take four years to put forth rules. No matter how politically unpopular, these are decisions that need to be made. State law already requires houses in fire-prone areas to be built with more fire-resistant materials and have ember-resistant vents. But the Zone Zero rules could also weigh in on materials, such as siding on the house.
Cal Fire also already has recommendations on all this. (You don't have to wait for a state law to create your own Zone Zero, by the way.) Basically nothing combustible is advised: no mulch or bark; no flammable furniture and planters. Use pavers, gravel or concrete.
The Board of Forestry and Fire Protection is expected to discuss the rules at its next meeting, in March, but not decide on them. Whenever the rules are decided, they still have to go through the state's rulemaking process and be put out for public comment.
It's so obvious that this process is taking too long. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on Feb. 6 instructing the board to draft rules and put them out for public comment within 45 days of his order and complete the formal rulemaking process by Dec. 31 of this year. Even that is too long a wait; rebuilding will be well under way by then in the burned areas of Los Angeles County.
The rules, once formalized, will apply to new construction first; existing properties will have to be retrofitted within a few years. The costs in materials surely will be far cheaper than rebuilding a house that has been burned to the ground.
And these rules can help provide protection for an entire neighborhood. The more houses with defensible space, the more fortified the entire neighborhood. 'It's a community ignition and community structure problem,' said longtime fire scientist Jack Cohen. Of course, even a neighborhood with perfect Zone Zero adherence will still be susceptible to fire, but the odds of its structures surviving will go up.
If ever there were a time to put Zone Zero regulations into effect, it's now, when thousands of owners whose homes were burned rush to rebuild or sell to others who will rebuild. Widespread implementation of Zone Zero could have an enormous impact on the fire safety of swaths of Los Angeles County.
However, even while the state's rulemaking drags on, local jurisdictions can pass their own Zone Zero regulations. There are a number of areas throughout the state that have already mandated Zone Zero rules. Los Angeles County and L.A. city could do the same.
If state rules are not in effect when homeowners rebuild, they should still seriously consider rebuilding with a defensible space of at least five feet around their homes. Giving up favored materials and plants that are combustible is the smallest of sacrifices to allow a home and a neighborhood a fighting chance the next time embers are raining down on L.A.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Yahoo
California celebrates 339 new public safety officers in multi-agency graduation
( — California welcomed 339 graduates from Cal Fire, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the California Highway Patrol to the state's already robust contingent of public safety officers. According to Newsom's Administration, strengthening the dedicated groups who protect the safety of Californians, Gov. Gavin Newsom congratulated multiple graduates with the Cal Fire, the CDCR, and the CHP. Sacramento's Track 7 Brewing Company announced its closures effective Saturday 'Thank you for answering the call to serve our great state,' Newsom said. 'As you go back to your communities, may you face any uncertainty with resolve, any challenges with integrity, and any hardships with determination.' Newsom stated that these firefighters, correctional officers, and highway patrol officers have joined their colleagues in communities statewide to protect California. Cal Fire celebrated 38 new Company Officers Academy graduates who will supervise and direct firefighters, Newsom stated. The Academy offers training in emergency and daily personnel management, physical conditioning, wildland and structural incident command, fire investigation, and the operation of fire vehicles, encompassing driving, pumping, and specialized wildland gear. 'Graduations are a time to come together with family, friends, and coworkers to celebrate the hard work our Company Officers have put in over the past six weeks. These women and men represent the next generation of leadership at CAL FIRE. I am very proud of their accomplishment and wish them the best as they return home to their new roles,' said CAL FIRE Chief/Director Joe Tyler. Defense Intelligence Agency IT Specialist arrested for allegedly sharing classified information Newsom stated that the cohort brings the total number of COA graduates in 2025 to 272. After an extensive 13-week program at the Basic Corrective Officer Academy, 168 cadets graduated, Newsom stated. This embarks on their new careers as CDCR correctional officers. 'It takes a special kind of person to wear the badge, the sacrifices and dedication of our families cannot be overstated. Our future success is dependent upon your professionalism, respect, and commitment to excellence,' said CDCR Secretary Jeff Macomber. In total, Newsom said that the CDCR will have 601 graduates, which also includes the current graduation class, which makes a significant step forward in CDCR's ongoing efforts and focus when it comes to recruitment, hiring, promotion, and retention. According to Newsom, the CHP welcomes 133 new officers who finished 26 weeks of extensive training at the CHP Academy in West Sacramento. The officers can report to one of the CHP's 102 area offices across California as they begin their law enforcement jobs. 'This graduation marks the beginning of a commitment to protecting and serving others. These officers have demonstrated their dedication to keeping California's communities safe and upholding the CHP's core values,' said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


Politico
15-05-2025
- Politico
Cap and trade is dead. Long live ‘cap and invest.'
Presented by WHAT'S IN A NAME?: Gov. Gavin Newsom's cap-and-trade proposal — at least one page of it — is officially on the table. Dig in. After a monthslong will-he-won't-he, Newsom came through today with a bid to reauthorize the state's bedrock emissions trading program through 2045. And, in line with his rebrand of it as 'cap and invest,' he put a heavy focus on its revenues — particularly against the backdrop of a $12 billion overall deficit. 'The taxpayer will be happy to hear about that $60 billion that will go back into people's pockets, if we are successful in getting that program extended,' he said, referring to a credit on utility bills. He also echoed an idea state lawmakers have been pushing with little success so far — making oil and gas companies pay for climate damages — to explain his proposal to use $1.5 billion of the cap-and-trade revenues to backfill general fund cuts to Cal Fire. 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Environmentalists, meanwhile, bristled at the lack of mention of potential reforms to the program they've floated, like eliminating free credits designed to stop major polluting industries from leaving the state and emissions caps on individual facilities. 'What the governor is proposing is reauthorization, not reform,' said Ryan Schleeter of the Climate Center. Also bummed: public transit agencies, who had been hoping for a shout-out, if not their entire $2 billion ask for cash-strapped systems. 'Staying silent on continued investments in transit, even as a starting position for the 'cap-and-invest' plan, is a blow to all who rely on essential transit service and throws into doubt the future of public transit in California,' said Michael Pimentel, executive director of the California Transit Association. 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Politico
14-05-2025
- Politico
Newsom blames Trump for bad budget (jkjk)
IT'S ITERATIVE, STUPID: Gov. Gavin Newsom says California's $12 billion spending gap is the product of a 'Trump slump' — but that he's not blaming the president for the state's budget woes. The governor's budget presentation — which projected a $16 billion revenue hit from President Donald Trump's tariff policies — was a study in the kinds of contradictions that abound in a bleak budget environment intensified by Trump 2.0 financial volatility. 'We have a president that's been reckless in terms of assaulting those growth engines,' Newsom said. 'It's created a climate of deep uncertainty.' The governor wants to cap enrollment and charge premiums for the state's pricey Medi-Cal expansion for undocumented immigrants, but he's not kicking people off their plans. (As his staff tripped over themselves to note on X this morning.) 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But the governor backtracked on a $30 million funding promise made to cash-strapped local journalists last fall in a landmark agreement with Google to supplant lost advertising revenue. His revised budget spends $10 million on newsroom aid — just one-third of the state's original commitment. — with help from Rachel Bluth, Eric He, Dustin Gardiner and Tyler Katzenberger IT'S WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. This is California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check on California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to lholden@ WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY IS IT 2028 YET? As surely as triple-digit temps return to Sacramento each summer, Newsom gets a version of this question whenever his proposals antagonize fellow Democrats: You're doing this because you're running for president, right? Today it was Newsom's call to cap Medi-Cal for undocumented immigrants — plus his continued tough talk on homeless encampments and his sojourns in the right-wing mediasphere — that prompted it. Newsom responded to a familiar query by pointing to his long history as a moderate among progressives, particularly his tenure as a business-friendly San Francisco mayor who sought to overhaul welfare benefits and ban sitting or lying on public sidewalks. 'I've been accused of being a pragmatist for 20-plus years,' Newsom said — using a gentler descriptor than some of his detractors might choose — 'and I think I'm being accused of that again.' 'I've been at this a long time,' he added, 'and it's remarkably consistent in that respect. I'm just for accountability.' — Jeremy B. White MORE MAY REVISE NEWSOM LINGO BINGO: Those as enmeshed in the Newsom-verse as we are (if that's the case, you have my sincere apologies) know there's a handful of phrases the governor pulls out nearly every time he's behind a microphone, and today was no exception. Here's some will make you feel like you were in the (entirely too small) 1021 O St. press room with us this morning. Please let us know if we missed any! WHICH DIE HARD IS THIS? One thing that did survive the budget bloodbath was Newsom's commitment to doubling the state's Film and Television Tax credit to $750 million. He defended his decision, saying Los Angeles's signature industry was on 'life support.' Entertainment industry players seemed notably relieved. 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