CalFire is working on new guidelines banning wooden fences and gates, plants, or anything flammable within 5 feet of homes to limit damage from wildfires.
Solano County’s Glen Cove community gained an additional measure of fire preparedness, earning a designation as a FireWise USA site. Glen Cove joins two other communities in the county — Green and Pleasant valleys. garden boundary
FireWise USA is a program spearheaded out of the National Fire Protection Association. The voluntary designation recognizes communities where neighbors organize for improved fire safety.
Source: Solano Resource Conservation District
California is chipping away at developing new statewide rules to remove plants, mulch and other flammable materials within 5 feet of buildings and structures in fire-prone areas, the Board of Forestry confirmed this month.
This proposed set of guidelines would also forbid that ubiquitous backyard feature — a wooden privacy fence. This rule lumps existing flammable fences into the same category as new construction.
“We’re already getting calls on that,” Arbor Fence Manager Cassidy Everitt said.
The Sonoma fence construction company uses redwood in at least 75% of its business, estimated Everitt. Customers who ask to replace their wooden fences may request metal, tin or chain-link versions. But in doing so, Everitt has found a critical consideration — getting neighbor buy-in.
“And neighbors are almost never on the same page,” she said.
No date is set on when the upcoming defensible space guidelines will be finalized or implemented, California Board of Forestry spokeswoman Edith Hannigan said.
Insiders say it’s only a matter of time when insurance companies make the changes mandatory. And in a state undergoing an insurance crisis, property owners need all the assistance they can get to keep their policies intact and affordable. The state is in the process of putting together a plan that will keep insurance companies engaged in insuring properties here.
The proposed defensible space rules, which Cal Fire is intended to enforce, are designed to minimize the fire danger of embers that land close to a structure.
State officials contend that, of 20 of the most destructive wildfires in California’s recorded history, 13 of them occurred since 2017, destroying about 40,000 structures, charring millions of acres of land and claiming 148 lives.
The proposal was created by the National Fire Protection Association, a Quincy, Massachusetts-based nonprofit, and the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, an industry trade group in Tampa, Florida, that uses a simulator as means to research adequate home-hardening measures.
Most California property owners susceptible to blazing infernos such as those in the North Bay are familiar with broader defensible space guidelines at the 30- to 100-foot perimeter.
The “5-foot rule” carries a whole other set of restrictions beyond 5 to 30 feet. Deemed Zone 1, the current zero-to-30-foot guidelines prohibit dead and dying grass, plants, shrubs, trees, branches, leaves, weeds and pine needles. At 10 feet away, all branches must be cleared from chimney and stovepipe outlets. Zone 2, which encompasses 30 to 100 feet, defines an area with more open space between shrubs and trees labeled the “fuel separation” method.
The Board of Forestry’s latest zone referred to as “zone zero,” also bans wood piles within 5 feet. The rules are being drafted now.
“The pandemic slowed things down, and they ended up being very complex,” Hannigan explained.
The latest proposed rules follow three related bills (the first two signed into law) introduced in the California Legislature — Assembly Bill 3074, authored by Laura Friedman, D-Burbank, seek to establish an ember-resistant zone within 5 feet of a building.
From there, Napa Sen. Bill Dodd also introduced Senate Bill 896, which created incentives for local governments to conduct defensible space inspections without the 5-foot requirement. Then, Dodd brought forth Senate Bill 504, which provides up to a 3-year time frame for property owners to implement the new rules.
The proposed legislation, which moved out of Assembly Appropriations Aug. 15, seeks to update the statutes on defensible space. It still must pass both Assembly and Senate floors.
One Santa Rosa housing development, Oakmont Village, is not waiting on making changes. The senior living community, located between the county seat and city of Sonoma, put its FireWise Landscape Policy with similar rules into effect in 2018. Those rules, enforced by the homeowner association’s architectural committee, included the 5-foot defensible space requirement.
FireWise Task Force (fire-safe council) board member and retired contractor, Iris Harrell, believes only half the development of about 5,000 residents is in compliance.
“It will probably take another two years to get (Oakmont) into compliance,” she said. “But Oakmont took the lead. The state is catching up.”
Harrell has implemented many measures at her own home she bought eight years ago near Oakmont Drive. She estimated she’s spent an average $3,500 each year on the exterior remodeling.
Some of the changes include replacing part of the wooden structures attached to the home with metal casings and a gate. A chain-link fence divides the property lines. Harrell even got the go-ahead to replant the shrubs located on her neighbor’s property to move them out of the 5-foot zone.
Among the improvements, Harrell installed sturdy European rolling shutters in the front of her home. She can see out, but passersby can’t see in. She also replaced the wood flooring with other materials. Some are made of PVC. Other floorboard accents are made of metal.
“You gotta think like an ember,” she said, pointing to an exterior metal floor board. “And we’ll continue to learn more as new techniques evolve with science.”
Harrell said she’s motivated by helping others recover from the anguish, pain, heartache and devastation of rebuilding their lives.
Oakmont, which is situated in a wildland urban interface (WUI), had close encounters with the Tubbs and Nuns fires in 2017, as well as the LNU Lightning Complex and Glass fires of 2020.
South Lake Tahoe was the first city in the state to enforce the strictest municipal ordinance, which was enacted in July. El Dorado County, which the city is located in, faced devastating destruction in its Upper Truckee neighborhood in 2007 when the Angora Fire, driven by heavy winds, consumed 254 homes and more than 300 structures.
The Sierra Nevada city endured a close call a few years ago with the Caldor Fire. The threat of that fire prompted South Lake Tahoe Fire Marshal Kim George to rip out all plant and flammables within 5 feet of her own home.
Marin County has also implemented its defensible space guidelines.
Susan Wood covers agriculture, law, cannabis, production, transportation as well as banking and finance. She can be reached at 530-545-8662 or susan.wood@busjrnl.com
Solano County’s Glen Cove community gained an additional measure of fire preparedness, earning a designation as a FireWise USA site. Glen Cove joins two other communities in the county — Green and Pleasant valleys.
FireWise USA is a program spearheaded out of the National Fire Protection Association. The voluntary designation recognizes communities where neighbors organize for improved fire safety.
lap fence panels Source: Solano Resource Conservation District