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I purchased a house last year in the Oakland Hills. I learned when I started calling around to secure insurance for it that it was in the "maximum wildfire risk
by sxates 9y ago
I purchased a house last year in the Oakland Hills. I learned when I started calling around to secure insurance for it that it was in the "maximum wildfire risk zone", which meant none of the big national insurance companies will touch it - making it difficult to insure. And you can't get a mortgage without that insurance, so you have no excuse for not knowing the risks.
In addition to that, the City of Oakland (and other cities in the area) have strict fire prevention ordinances for those who live in these high risk areas. You are required to maintain a defensible space around your house, to remove dead trees and shrubs, clean up dry leaves, keep grass short, remove tree limbs < 6' from the ground, etc etc. and the fire department comes by at least once a year to inspect your property to make sure you do it. If they find you in non-compliance they fine you $330 on the spot and schedule another inspection for a couple weeks later. Again, no excuse for not knowing your risks.
Similar regulations are in place for utilities and businesses to reduce the risk. Seems to me California is doing a much better job dealing with natural disaster preparation, but there's only so much the state can reasonably do.
- topspin 9y agoBased on aerial views of the burned out subdivisions the problem is zoning. The structures have almost no separation from each other; only 5-10' on average as seen in video from Santa Rosa[1]. In subdivisions where the fire spared some homes the line between the burned out properties and the survivors is often a street; a modest residential street provided enough separation to stop the fire. So CA and its various governments have been either allowing or requiring developers to plat large homes on tiny lots with next to no separation. Fed by wind the fire leapt from one home to the next burning out whole subdivisions. While the efforts you cite to control brush are admirable they can't prevent this; the houses are too tightly packed and will burn en-mass with no help from brush at all given enough wind. Bottom line; this is indeed a regulatory problem. Obviously that rankles those that habitually give CA every benefit of the doubt in all things but physics doesn't care. [1] http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Drone-footage-reveals-utter-devastation-to-Santa-12278094.php http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Drone-footage-reveals-utt...