“A Process of Continual Improvement Given Wildfire Season Is Effectively Now 12 Months Long”

SACRAMENTO – This morning, more than two dozen wildfires continue to rage across California in a year when nearly four million acres of land have been charred, 29 people have been killed and over 7,200 structures have been destroyed.

It’s against that backdrop that Senator Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles) announced the Governor has signed three measures that, when they take effect in January, should help people better protect themselves against fire-related and other emergencies.

“Preparing for ‘wildfire season’ has become a process of continual improvement given wildfire season is effectively now 12 months long,” said Stern, the Chairman of the Senate Natural Resources & Water Committee.  “We have got to tackle the climate emergency, but even if we were to solve it tomorrow, it’s not going to reverse decades of neglect immediately.  These new laws should help people protect themselves when a fire does break out.”

AB 3074 (Friedman-Stern) establishes an ember-resistant zone within five feet of a structure as part of the overall defensible space requirements for structures located in specific, very high fire hazard severity zone (VHFHSZ) areas to help protect against wildfire.

“Defensible space is really the front line when it comes to defending a home or a building against a wildfire,” continued Stern.  “This defensible space, when you combine it with home hardening that prevents flying embers from getting into a home’s eaves or onto a woodpile right next to the house, will go a long way toward making a home ignition resistant.”

Two other measures signed into law aim to help older and more vulnerable Californians when a fire breaks out or a public safety power shutoff (PSPS) event is triggered to avoid the potential for starting a fire:

• SB 596 (Stern) requires county social services agencies to let people applying for certain benefits know they may also be eligible for a local utility’s medical baseline program.  Under the program, people are entitled to receive a certain amount of power at a lower cost and they’ll also be told early on about planned power outages and PSPS events. 
• AB 2213 (Limón-Stern), makes it easier for fire officials to reach out to elderly Californians and those with special needs who may need help during a PSPS or other emergency event.  Signed into law earlier this month, AB 2213 lets county social services agencies share the phone numbers and email addresses of elderly and disabled residents with fire and other emergency service agencies so they can more easily contact and, if necessary, help evacuate those people during a PSPS, fire, or other emergency.  Until now, only the home addresses of these residents could be shared with emergency workers.

“For a person on a ventilator system or someone who relies on medication that has to be refrigerated, there is no good time for a PSPS event, but catching our most vulnerable residents off guard and leaving them with no support is unacceptable,” said Stern, a member of the Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee. “It is government’s most basic responsibility to protect its elderly and medically fragile residents.  These measures will help ensure appropriate resources and early warnings will get out to the people who need it the most, and that it will be quicker and easier to contact them should an evacuation need to take place.”

All three bills will take effect on January 1, 2021.

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