SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California's lawmakers are on summer break, but one topic is important enough to keep some working. The select committee on wildfire prevention met on Wednesday for the first time.
Assemblymember Damon Connoly is the chair of the select committee.
“One of the first acts I took in office was to request for the establishment of this new committee," he said. "Through this committee, I hope to engage a broader group of stakeholders to discuss and collaborate on the challenges, lessons learned and opportunities relating to tackling our wildfire challenges.”
At Wednesday's hearing, Frank Bigelow, assistant deputy director with the State Fire Marshall, ran through what homeowners can do to prepare.
“Up to 75% of homes during a wildfire are burned down by embers, not by direct flame contact, not by radiant heat, but through embers,” he said.
He said people should look for any holes, cracks or openings an ember can slip into.
“Just go in your garage, close the doors during the day and see if you can see daylight," Bigelow said. "You have that many cracks and ways for embers to get inside? It's an intrusion point.”
Mike Peterson, with the California Department of Insurance, said they adopted new regulations to require insurance companies to provide incentives to policyholders who implement home hardening.
“In 2018, only 7% of policyholders had access to any incentive for home hardening in their policy. By 2021, that number had grown to 40% of policyholders, and this new regulation that was finalized last fall," " he said.
However, incentives only help those who still have coverage.
Connoly knows Wednesday’s hearing is just the start of many hard conversations to come.
“We're going to have many more of these hearings," he said. "I think we teed up a lot of the issues that we're all aware of, but digging deeper on them and really going forward in a way that helps our communities but also really helps the environment as well,” he said.
There was also an opportunity for members of the public to weigh in. There was one homeowner who said it took him six months to get a permit to clean the area around his fence.
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