In the unprecedented fires of the January wind, a shooting of embers rushed from the hillside brush to the neighborhoods, to trigger houses and to any fence and furniture around them that would burnt. These flames have spread to adjacent houses, and the winds have propelled millions of additional embers into the air to more houses and yards. That more firefighters on the ground or helicopters transformers of water in the air or the tanks could have removed destruction, one thing is extremely clear for fire scientists: the time to start fighting the fire is before that ‘He doesn’t start.
To this end, the California Legislative Assembly, at the end of 2020, adopted Bill 3074 of the Assembly, demanding that the houses or structures occupied in the areas most strongly at risk of fire establishes five feet of Defependable space around them. The state already requires a release of the brushes and dead leaves less than 100 feet from the houses. But this bill called for creating a zero zone at five feet – or a zero area – around a house. This does not guarantee that a house does not burn, but it offers the best defense that a owner can have against the embers to them.
Here is the problem: the law of 2020 has not yet entered into force. The board of directors of the state of forestry and fire protection was accused of having written the zero zone rules and regulations by January 2023. The council was four years to work on this subject, And it’s two years after the deadline.
At a time when fires are more and more intense, it is not only ridiculous, it is irresponsible. Why the Holdup? How long does it take to decide that owners should not really have wooden fences or combustible shrubs within five feet of their houses? According to Christine McMoror, spokesperson for Cal Fire, the board of directors accelerates its process. But there is a lot to consider to the members of the board of directors: “The rules of the new zero zone will have financial implications for people, so the emphasis is currently on what attenuations are most “She said last week. The advice also wishes to provide an education plan to help people understand why they cannot have this wooden fence. “We always want to push education on quotation,” she said.
The largest obstacle, apparently, is to determine the details of what to allow and prohibit it. What should not be authorized on a deck? What about the materials allowed for the bridge itself? Are the doors prohibited? Should all window frames be metallic? However, that should not take four years to offer rules. No matter how politically unpopular it is, these are decisions that must be made. State law already requires that houses in fire areas be built with more fire -resistant materials and have balance sheets resistant to the balance sheet. But the rules of the zero zone could also weigh on materials, such as the side of the house.
Cal Fire also already has recommendations on all of this. (You don’t have to wait for a state law to create your own zero zone, by the way.) Born, nothing fuel is advised: no mulch or bark; No flammable furniture and planters. Use pavers, gravel or concrete.
The board of directors of forestry and fire protection should discuss the rules at its next meeting in March, but do not decide them. Whenever the rules are decided, they must always go through the state regulation process and be published for public comments.
It is so obvious that this process takes too long. Governor Gavin Newsom published a decree on February 6 asked the Council to write rules and publish them for public comments within 45 days of his order and to complete the official regulation process by December 31 of this year. Even it is too long of waiting; Reconstruction will be in progress by then in the burned areas of the County of Los Angeles.
The rules, once formalized, will first apply to the new construction; The existing properties will have to be renovated in a few years. Material costs will surely be much cheaper than rebuilding a house that has been burned on the ground.
And these rules can help provide protection to an entire neighborhood. The more houses with a defensible space, the more the whole district is fortified. “It is a problem of community ignition and community structure,” said the longtime scientist of Fire Cohen. Of course, even a district with the adhesion of a perfect zero zone will always be sensitive to fires, but the chances of its surviving structures will increase.
If there was a time to put into force the regulation of the zero zone, it is now, when thousands of owners whose houses have been burned to rebuild or sell to others who rebuild. The widespread implementation of Zero Zone could have a huge impact on fire safety of the County Los Angeles County.
However, even if state regulations light up, local courts can adopt their own regulations on the zero zone. There are a number of areas throughout the state that have already forced zero zone rules. The County of Los Angeles and the City could do the same.
If the rules of the state are not in force when the owners rebuild themselves, they should always seriously consider rebuilding with a defensible space of at least five feet around their houses. Abandon favored materials and combustible plants is the smallest of sacrifices to allow a house and a neighborhood a chance to fight the next time the embers are raining in Los Angeles
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