Craig Wildfire Ordinance_mixdown.mp3

Craig Wildfire Ordinance_mixdown.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Craig Wildfire Ordinance_mixdown.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Katie:
Welcome to the City of Redding Podcast. In this episode, we bring back Redding Fire Marshal Craig Whitner to discuss the current risk of wildfire in Redding and how new rules might be implemented citywide. To help reduce that risk.

Steve:
If new wildfire ordinances are approved, they would change current development, zoning, building and fire codes to make our community more fire resistant. But of course, public opinion on this issue is vital.

Katie:
Listen, as Craig explains, what measures could be implemented and why they are important. Then head to City of Redding. Org's Wildfire and take the community survey to voice your opinion. The survey website is also linked in the show notes below.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
My name is Craig Wittner and I'm currently the fire marshal for the Redding Fire Department. I've been with the fire department about 18 years and almost five years as fire marshal.

Steve:
Thank you, Craig. It's good to have you on the podcast again. And we're excited to talk to you today on wildfire mitigation and some of the things the city is proactively doing and also maybe some things that are coming down the pipe. Can you talk to us a little bit? What is our risk for wildfire here in Redding?

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
Sure. Well, the hazards that we face in our community, there's a handful. We have floods every few years. We also are in a an earthquake zone. And so very infrequently, we have some minor earthquakes. But by far and above those hazards are wildfire risk. And those who have lived in our community for any length of time know that every single year we have a risk. And it seems like and quite frankly, our fire season is beginning earlier and it's lasting longer. You know, we used to be able to count on fire season starting in June or July and then would end somewhere towards the end of October, about every year. I used to look forward to Halloween because Halloween was a weather change noticeably and we would start to wind our fire season down. But in the last several years, our fire season can easily start in April and it can last all the way till December. The last couple of years we haven't declared the end of fire season until the middle of November at the earliest and then sometimes into December. So we have an all too real risk of wildfire in our community. And the risk isn't just from wildfire necessarily. We live in an area that is very prone to fires, period, because of our temperatures, our low humidities, our environment that we live in is full of vegetation. We live up here for a reason. We like to live in a natural state. We have vegetation which burns very well, unfortunately. So it could be a large wildfire. It also could be a fire from your neighbor next door for whatever reason that may affect your residence and your home. So wildfires are number one risk.

Katie:
Craig We did a podcast with you last year about all the things that we learned from the car fire and if anyone is interested. There's a lot of really great information in that episode, but could you just very briefly recap some of those items here?

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
Most of us who've been here for a while experience the car fire. We know the tragedy, the campfire. And every year we watch the same news stories in the morning and the afternoon and the evening news talking about wildfire on the West Coast, primarily in California and then certainly in northern California. We are looking to deal with with that risk by a series of measures, we know what the risk is. We use existing tools like defensible space to deal with that risk. I think the term defensible space most folks are familiar with the fire service has been pushing the defensible space message for a couple of decades now. But what we've learned from car fire, campfire and other major fires is that defensible space is not enough. So we have a state law, a defensible space law that if you live in the very high fire hazard severity zones in Redding, that's most everything on the west and north sides of town, there are certain standards and regulations that would apply to those residents in that area. But we also learned during car fire is even if we apply our construction standards to reduce that risk of wildfire, we can still use structures because of really three things vegetation, landscape bark or combustible mulch, those that we use to decorate or adorn our properties and wood fences. So we've taken that knowledge as well as scientific evidence from our fire service wildfire community, and we've applied that knowledge to our ordinance that we're looking to bring forward and propose to the community. So what that really means to us is we take those defensible space laws. We would like to apply those citywide because there is a risk not just in the very high fire hazard severity zone, but also citywide and reduce risk citywide. And then moving beyond the vegetation management ordinance are proposals we would like to. City wide for future construction. And that's the deal really with the term called the home ignition zone. And it's to deal with those three things I mentioned earlier, landscaped vegetation, combustible ground coverings and wood fences.

Katie:
I was going to ask about the state law that mandates defensible space in high wildfire danger areas. Is all of Redding considered high wildfire danger or because I know the WUI, the wildlife urban interface zone kind of sits all around Redding, but does that actually creep into the city center or where does that actually sit? For Redding.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
Most of the very high fire hazard severity zone is on the west and north side of the city. And the maps that we have available that folks can look at on the City Redding website and Cal Fire Hazard map sites show what's called the state responsibility areas, which is the county area surrounding the city and then the local response areas or LRE, which is actually city proper. So if you look at those maps, they're color coordinated. We have two, essentially two zones. It's the very high fire hazard zone and then everything else in the city which is not categorized. The problem with these existing maps that we adopted years ago, they're not all inclusive. They've done the best they could with the data that they had to provide those maps. But we have identical risks outside or on the fringes of those very high fire hazard severity zones that actually have the same risk. 11a bright spot on the horizon is the state is going to be coming out with new maps by the end of this year, including the state responsibility area and local responsibility area that will better define those areas. What it will also do is they'll present us with additional or lower hazard zones to include high and moderate. And the city will look at those maps to make a determination as to whether we want to adopt the high and moderate or stick with the very high. But you can count on the very high also being more inclusive. For example, streets up off of Wasatch or Fujiyama Street, you'll have a home on one side of the street in the zone, and then the identical type house right next to it out of the zone. That just has to do with the data that was plugged in at the time that those maps are created. They've utilized more inclusive data. So I would venture to say that that zone is likely to grow when we get a look at those new maps later on this year.

Steve:
Kind of on that same thread I've heard for some folks who live on the west or north or even who've rebuilt since the car fire, home insurance can be challenging to get nowadays because of this wildfire danger. How does that come into play and are any of these mitigation efforts that are being done by the city? Do you think those help on the home insurance front?

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
I would answer that first by saying yes and no. There's a lot of misconceptions about our very high fire hazard severity zones. One would easily think that if I'm not in the zone now, I don't want to be in the zone because it's going to make my insurance premiums increase. Or maybe I'll experience the threat of having my insurance canceled, which we know many of our residents have experienced in the past and experience in the future. We reached out to the insurance industry, folks that we know and it was explained. The insurance industry has their own risk formula, so they are not looking at just the whether you live inside or outside the zones. They have a completely unassociated, different risk formula that they come up with. Determine your risk. May that play into it? It might. But more importantly, there are measures that one could take that may currently live in the zone or be worried about being included in a high hazard zone. There are measures we can take to reduce their risk. It's really about communication with the insurance company and applying those risk reduction measures where necessary. But we have heard from a couple of years now, folks having a hard time in certain areas like Tierra Oaks, for example. Our residents in Tiara Oaks have had problems. Some their insurance premiums have tripled, while others with some companies have been canceled altogether and do find it difficult to obtain an insurance policy. So we best we can do is at this point in time is guide them to provide risk reduction measures on their property and communicate that to their insurance companies.

Katie:
And so I know that kind of feeds back into what you were talking about with the vegetation, the bark and the wood fences. I know those are pretty common ways that homeowners can reduce their own risk. Maybe you can just talk a little bit more about each one of those things and how those contribute to the severity of wildfires in neighborhoods and how that may affect insurance premiums.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
So the home ignition zone is a term that was introduced to us in 2019 when the City of Redding was participating in a program called the Community Planning Assistance. A wildfire program after 20. After the Carr fire in 2018, we applied for a grant. We were awarded the grant. And then throughout 2019. City rating staff since spent time with experts in the Land Development and Fire Service in general, folks with PhDs after their names and plenty of experience. The team looked at our development standards how where we build our homes in the wildland urban interface, basically how we live, the way we live in Redding and at the end of 2019 gave us a list of recommendations that through experience they knew would reduce our risk. Since then, city staff has been moving forward with dealing with those recommendations, one of which is the proposed Vegetation Management Ordinance. And then part two of that is our recommendations for development or construction in the city moving forward. And it so happens that that term, the home ignition zone, which has been known elsewhere in the country and Canada for a few years. Anybody that's been in the fire service for any length of time knows that the immediate vicinity of the outside of your home is critical to the survivability of your home during a wildfire or just a fire event. We didn't know there was a term applied to it. It's called the home ignition zone. The state of California recognizes that zone and they have told us, meaning the state fire marshal and Cal Fire are going to be coming out with regulations after 2023 to deal with what they call the ember resistance zone. Just so happens to be the home ignition zone. And it has to do with landscape, vegetation, wood fences, storage, adjacent buildings, everything around the outside envelope of our home within five feet.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
They'll often refer to it as the zero zone as well. And how that's going to play into existing defensible space laws is defensible space is comprised of two zones. Currently, it's the first 30 feet from the outside walls of your home and then the remaining 70 feet or to the property line, whichever is closer, that the proposed regulations coming from the state after next year will add a third zone to that. That will be called that zero zone and that will deal with the first five feet around the exterior walls of your home. And given what we know from CalFire Camp Fire, as well as what we learned through the 2019 CPR process, the city Redding is moving forward with developing regulations and proposals to the community to deal with that home ignition zone. We know that if we take care of that zone and provide those risk reduction measures, we can reduce risk moving forward for the entire community. And that really has to do with things that we all adorn our homes with vegetation, landscape bark, wood fences, wood piles, patio furniture, barbecues, all those things that all of us, including garbage cans, store in the outside of our home. So there's going to be a real push from your fire service agency, Redding Fire Department, Cal Fire and others to switch it up, if you will, the education model that we've been giving to the community the last few decades, and you can look forward to them, including those terms that deal with that five foot area, whether it be the home ignition zone structure, ignition zone, amber resistant zone or zero zone. It really is the same thing as that first five feet.

Steve:
And maybe we can get into some specifics around the discussion for these new ordinances and eventually updated building codes. What would we as a community be looking at if things went through? And I guess what kind of factors are being weighed to determine if changes should happen to the existing codes?

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
So we've held four community workshops so far, three with our community citizens and one with our developers attempting to educate folks about the ordinance. But what it really means to folks is we will be taking the existing defensible space laws, expanding some of the distances, and attempting to deal with that home ignition zone. For example, if you're currently within the very high fire hazard severity zone or what they term the WUI wildland urban interface, you are required by state law to provide 100 feet defensible space to your structure, either 100 feet or to the property line, whichever is closer. And as you also know, we live in Redding surrounded by nature. We back up the nature. We're next door to nature and we have a lot of open space or green space, both public land and private land. And we have been working with for years with people to manage those open spaces such that we reduce the wildfire risk. But also keep in mind the the environmental portion. The land. Make sure that we know. Which doesn't mean clear cutting. It just means treating those fuels and modifying those fuels. Reducing those fuels, if you will, to lower wildfire risk. You know, one thing I would note is we are not trying to prevent fire. That's almost an impossibility. We can work hard at it, but there's going to be additional fires. What we can do that is realistic is we can modify those fuels so that we reduce the intensity and speed that a future fire will travel and hopefully reduce the damage that or the potential damage that that fire will do.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
So the 100 feet will remain the same. We would like to expand that to include all structures. So basically we're taking every structure we have and making sure that we've modified the fuel around that to at least 100 feet or to the property line, whichever is closer. Another portion of the proposed ordinance would also require a minimum of ten feet and up to 30 feet from roadways, driveways, rights of ways, travel ways. And what that'll do for us, in addition to treating those fuels, it gives us a buffer along the roads that we travel. So if wildfire does impact an area that's adjacent to those roads, we can still count on having thorough evacuations. We prevent traffic hazards, traffic hazards, etc., similar to what was done along 299 east, up toward single town. Now, that was a dramatic fuels reduction. It really widened those roads. We're asking for ten feet up to 30 feet, depending on the density and arrangement of those fuels. For example, if a roadway was uphill from a large fuel source downhill, we know that fire travels quickly uphill. So we may want to increase that ten feet to 30 feet that we treat those fuels that way. Our ability to utilize that roadway, maybe during an evacuation, won't be impeded by those fuels in a fire condition. This would include driveways as well. And folks need to remember, too. We're not looking to clearcut. We're just looking to reduce and treat those fuels so we can still have the beautification on our lands that we like, but also provide for some fire safety.

Katie:
Craig, I have a question on that. Obviously, these ordinances are just being talked about and just to see what the best course of action is for the city. But if some of these things were ultimately passed, it's going to mean a big change for a lot of homeowners and property owners, certainly for things like roadways, ten feet of access on the on the side of roads. Is that the city's responsibility or would that be the responsibility of whoever owned the property that was adjacent to that road?

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
Both. So in the case of throughout town or city streets and roads, a lot of that would be the city's responsibility to maintain those areas. And then, of course, private properties, if you happen to own the property to the street with which those fuels stand, and that would be the property owners responsibility. And when we were talking to citizens about these subjects, we notice a lot of eyebrows raised. And as a property owner myself, I would have a concern. What does that mean to me? I want folks to know we are not looking for clear cutting. We're not looking for the absolute removal of all vegetation that are in these areas. We are really after the dead, the downed, the diseased or dying fuel loads, which does make sense. That's what we're after. Another thing this ordinance would do is it would address vacant parcels throughout the city, whether it is a local property owner or an absentee property owner, public or private. We have separated based upon lot size. So if you own a half acre or less, you would be required to clear that lot of all hazardous vegetation provide a treatment on that entire lot, which would include mowing the grasses to no more than four inches in height, taking care of all dead and down materials, and basically providing better management on that parcel of the entire half acre parcel.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
And if you own property, undeveloped property that was over one half an acre, we're looking at treating providing a 30 foot fuel break along the perimeter of that parcel and then taking care of the dead down, obviously the diseased or dying vegetation. So we feel like that would really address a lot of a lot of vacant land in the city, which we currently look at. If you drive anywhere in town, you can see a lot of vacant parcels that are essentially untreated. Now we do have an existing ordinance in our Redding Municipal Code section that deals with essentially hazardous vegetation. But that particular code section is is several decades old. It's a little ambiguous. We'd like to clean it up so we provide straight, clear guidance with which property owners can understand.

Steve:
If these changes do go through. It seems like it can be a large undertaking for property owners to abide by the new ordinance. How is that going to be monitored and tracked by the Redding Fire Department and to ensure that folks are both aware of the new ordinances and also abided by these changes.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
So education is going to be key. So we're going to increase the education with our citizenry, both social media, whichever way works to get the message out. But we'll also be talking to them in person. And this is not going to be a matter of, say, if the ordinance was passed today, it's not going to be a matter of us driving around town looking for violations. We only have so much staff to deal with. So for example, currently we respond to approximately 300 complaints a year, any given year from residents about hazardous vegetation, overgrown lots, weeds, etc. And our ability to our current ability is really only to respond to those complaints we don't have, haven't had, don't have and probably aren't going to have the staffing to be proactive and actually drive around looking for violations. We will continue to respond to complaints as they come in. If in each complaint is inspected, if it's found to not be a violation of code, then we'll close it out and explain to the complaining party that there is no violation. If the inspection determines there is a violation present, we will have been and will continue to work with landowners to bring their properties into compliance. And then the last part of the ordinance is going to require a little bit more education.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
And that was obvious with some of the raised eyebrows again and some of the concerns from the folks that we've spoken with so far. Currently, if, for example, if we live in a residential neighborhood, pick any of them in town. Our defensible space or lack thereof, like on my property does affect my neighbor. And likewise I can present a risk to my mate, not just myself, but also my neighbour. And so we are going to be after the hazardous fuels, the dead dying fuels, and this ordinance would recognize essentially 30 feet of my fuel. I have a responsibility to treat up to 30 feet of my vegetation if it's within 100 feet defensible space of my neighbor and vice versa there. Industry wide, there's currently the knowledge out there that, like I said before, if I let my property overgrow and don't maintain it, yes, that's a risk to myself. But it's also an unfair risk to my neighbor who who I live next to. And there is an unwritten recognition that we have a responsibility to each other to provide for defensible space and maintain our properties. This ordinance would essentially codify my responsibility of providing up to 30 feet of my neighbor's defensible space if I've got vegetation on my property.

Katie:
And is that specific to vegetation? Are we talking about like trees, weeds, grasses, that kind of thing? Is any other piece of defensible space does that come into that 30 feet like wood piles or structures or anything like that? It's just specific to vegetation.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
This is just specific to vegetation and specific to hazardous vegetation. And this ordinance would exempt what they call ornamental landscaping, which in the majority of us have well pruned trees, bushes, shrubbery. As long as it's a well maintained, irrigated and in a healthy condition, those would be exempted from the ordinance. We're really after the dead, the dying, the flashy hazardous fuels. That would be a violation anyway. So we are certainly not going to be attempting to clear cut people's property. It's really after the hazardous fuels. That's what this ordinance is about.

Steve:
And Craig, I would imagine that the city itself has quite a bit of property throughout city limits that fall into this category as well that would need some attention if the ordinance goes through. How is the city prepared to abide by these new standards and regulations as well?

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
Well, I'm not going to say it's going to be easy. The city has several thousand acres of open space that needs to be managed as well and would need to comply with the ordinance. We have been and will continue to do the best we can providing fuels reduction on our properties. We have been prioritizing for years. For example, I will mention the Country Heights neighborhood. A Country Heights has about 175 acres of city owned open space in and around Country Heights proper. That's has been and will continue to be a priority because that area happens to be within the very high fire hazard severity zone. Another area of priority would be the Quail Ridge Subdivision over by Boulder Creek School. It's also within the very high fire hazard severity zone. So those city owned parcels take top of the list and others. With regard to fuels reduction, we do struggle at times oftentimes to it's tough to get several thousand acres with our existing staff. It's gotten a little bit more difficult over the last few years. Historically, the Redding Fire Department and our Parks Department has contracted with the Cal Fire, Sugar Pine or inmate crews to provide fuels reduction. And it was a great program. They did a lot of a lot of good work for us maintaining our public properties, but with various propositions.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
In early release, the inmates that were available to work on those crews are not as available. So and in addition to that, large fires and fuel reduction projects, county and statewide have made those crews hard to get. So the city of Redding is looking for other ways, including its own parks, maintenance workers that work on properties all the time, as well as utilizing the California Conservation Corps crews. But they do have a fairly hefty price associated with them. There are anywhere from 36 or 30 $800 a day for a triple C crew. And then, of course, we have private contractor. And anybody who has spent money on fuels reduction in the last several years knows that demand has gone up. So has prices. So it can be an expensive proposition. That's why we turned to the use of goats to maintain some of our higher priority properties and properties adjacent to neighborhoods. Currently, that cost is about $750 an acre to utilize the goats, but that is not a total solution. The goats take care of the light. Flashy fuels that. Grow up seasonally. But the heavier fuels.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
Lifting of trees. Taking away of dead and downed materials. That still has to be done by hand crews. So we continue to work hard doing that. Another program that we've been using for fuels reduction is by way of the Redding Electric Utility. In 2019, the council adopted the rating electric utility, vegetation management and Improve Response Program. So reading electric utility is working hard to ensure that their lines are free of overgrown vegetation so they can't impact the lines. And then also, if there is a failure of one of the lines or some of the equipment, that if it does spread to the vegetation, it's been treated so we can reduce the speed and intensity of that potential fire. The reality is that there is a lot of public property to take care of. The city is going to do the best it can, but the city may propose and look towards our citizenry to help come up with a way to deal with the amount of public land that's out there. But it's really a community effort. So the city is going to continue to work hard to reduce the fuels on on publicly owned property and work with landowners to reduce fuels on private property.

Steve:
I kind of liken it to the Golden Gate Bridge, right where you start painting one side. By the time you get to the other side, it's time to go back and start painting again. I imagine the upkeep for city owned property, especially you start at the beginning of the year and by the time you get all the way through, it's time to start it all over again.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
There are some years where we return to a property for a maintenance and everybody knows how quick certain the tokens and the the poisoned oaks and other vegetation grows up. Ideally, if we could visit our properties no later than every four years, we think that we could manage those in a fairly safe state. But when you have several thousand acres and only so much manpower to deal with it and only so much money to, like I say, use goats or go out to bid through private contractor, that's a large undertaking.

Steve:
Craig, you mentioned that there's been a series of workshops for community members to provide feedback about these ordinances and proposed changes. I imagine this topic is slated to go to City Council in the upcoming months to be discussed as well. If community members are still interested in providing feedback but may have missed the workshops, are there still opportunities for them to provide some insight as to their thoughts on this topic?

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
Absolutely. And the easiest way to do that, if they happen to miss the workshops, there is an online survey available through the City Redding website and it is City of Redding dot org back slash wildfire. It takes about probably less than 2 minutes to take that survey. And folks cannot only answer yes or no on on the available questions, but it's open for input so folks can give us ideas, tell us that we're doing good on properties, or tell us that we need to do more. But it's, it's, it's input we need to hear and we're open to, to any suggestions they may have.

Katie:
It may be safe to say that the best offense is a good defense in this scenario, which is, you know, to watch your own property, to make sure that your own property is following the best practices and that that you're trying to mitigate your own risk by reducing hazardous vegetation. I don't know if that means removing bark or choosing a different material that instead of bark, potentially replacing wood fences or moving patio furniture. I know we've we've had some podcasts before where you really discuss these things in detail, but are there other things that homeowners could easily do? I mean, it's easy to worry about public property or big large swaths of land that you feel like you have very little control over. So what is the best way that homeowners can control their own area?

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
I start by being educated, so if they search online and they don't find what they're looking for, they need to reach out to their local fire authority, give them a phone call, send an email if we can. If we can make it, we'll schedule a home inspection to give them a walk through. Speaking of inspections, that is a direction that the Redding Fire Department desires to move to. We don't currently have a staffing for it, but our goal would be to have staffing in order to make what we call parcel level inspections, personal inspection for folks that require one, and let them know what their personal risk is. But number one, start by being educated. Look online at the available information out there. Cal Fire has got a really good site ready for wildfire dot org. There is the NFPA org a website there's FEMA dot gov and of course the city Redding websites. There's a ton of information on there. And if they're not satisfied with that, they need to reach out to our local fire authority. That's what we're here for. We're here to to reduce risk for the folks that we work for. So give us a call. Will be glad to get an attention in addition to the vegetation management ordinance we're going to be proposing. Some changes to our development standards. What we mean by that is since its adoption in 2008, we have applied certain construction standards and construction materials to homes that are constructed in the very high fire hazard severity zones.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
And we know that construction can reduce risk. However, when we build a fire safe home and we attach a wood fence to both sides, when we landscaped the outside walls with vegetation and then we put combustible ground coverings like bark mulch up against our homes, that becomes the weak link and totally throws out all the good things we've done with the construction. For example, if I build a non combustible exterior home, maybe I use what's called cardboard or cementitious siding, or I use stucco, and I apply all the construction methods we know that reduces risk. And then I put bark mulch along the exterior and attached wood fences. We know that burns down homes. A wind driven ember will easily land and ignite and bark mulch easily get a dead vegetation going. And then of course, a wood fences is pretty much a slow burning fuse that gets to our home and destroys our home. Some of the regulations we're proposing are to deal with new construction. We'd like that to apply citywide. We did a study actually, Headwaters Economics did a study out of Montana and looked at the cost of a your average home versus a fire safe home. And it was a very small margin. And in some cases, depending on the type of construction material, could actually be a couple of percentage points cheaper to build a fire safe home.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
That's not going to be the case every time, but it's not that much more. I think we have found that the greatest increase typically is landscaping because instead of like throwing bark mulch down, which is easy to transport, easy to to apply, you use something like River Rock. Well, that costs a little bit more. It's harder to put down and transport, etc., but long term the risk reduction is really a no brainer. Same thing with fences, for example. Wood is plentiful. Most folks can work with a wood fence. They're decorative. We're used to them. Everybody's got wood fences. So applying something non-combustible like a wrought iron fence is a little more expensive. But again, the risk reduction is a no brainer. That wood fence can burn. But if it can't get to my home, that that's it's worth it's worth the additional cost. So we are going to be moving forward with proposing those regulations. And we want to make sure we educate our development and construction community. And those standards are backed up with science and we can show it all day long. So those are the types of things long term that we know will reduce risk for the community. But it really is a matter of education. We have to have the community on board along with us in order to be successful in implementing these these proposals.

Katie:
Well, maybe one small silver lining is with the cost of wood nowadays, it might be just as economical to build a chain link or a metal fence at this point.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
If you recall, I talked about the Land Park subdivision northwest of town off of one of Ventura Land Park subdivision is unique in that when we started building it, it predated the 2008 adoption of the wildfire construction standards in the WUI. So we had pre what we call chapter seven eight homes and then post Chapter 70 homes, homes that were built to wildfire standards during CalFire. Those homes burn relatively equal because we had negated our fire safety standards with wood fences, vegetation planted on the outside wall and then, of course, landscape bark. So we want to avoid doing the things we know that are susceptible to ignition and damaging our homes moving forward. Some of those things have already been implemented. For example, Salt Creek Heights, Palomar Construction out there has built some of their homes with non combustible fencing that attaches to the home as well as river rock around the base of the home and avoided using landscape bark. So they've really reduced their risk long term. And so we'd like to see that applied citywide. And there are risks not just from wildfire but also ordinary accidental type fires that happen.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
A garbage can, for example. We know that a garbage cans burn with pretty good intensity. They're made out of polyethylene, they're plastic. And when they burn for a multitude of reasons, whether it be improperly discarded smoking materials or maybe ashes from a barbecue or a woodstove, the plastic burns with a lot of intensity. And as it's damaging the outside wall of our home, as it's burning, it's burning it up and entering our attic. Space at the same time. So education, letting folks know that that's a hazard. And also dealing with the wood fences and vegetation. We hope we can just bring people bring to people's attention the hazards that exist on their properties. Now, whether they plan on building a home or whether they live in a neighborhood like the garden tractor or dealing with small subdivisions, we have some proposals for venting your home as well. Fire related events to keep fires from and embers from getting into your attic space. A lot of science we want to make sure we bring to the citizens to help reduce their risk.

Steve:
Greg, do you anticipate pushback from developers with these new development and construction standards?

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
I would imagine so. In the beginning, if I was a contractor developer and you told me that I was going to be spending more for fire related events, spending more for landscaping and spending more for wood fences. I would be resistant naturally, because it's going to cost me more money and ultimately that gets passed on to the consumer, quite frankly. But if we can show and educate properly that it's not that much more in the long term, it's good for the community. We have some great developers and great contract contractors in Redding. We're fairly confident that they'll accept it for what it is, but they may also have some feedback for us that we hadn't considered. I would say that during the 2019 CPO process, some of the education materials that Headwaters Economics had brought to our attention was an example in Florida, one of the communities they work with in Florida that implemented these fire safe measures actually realized the 10% increase in their premiums because folks had a desire to move into a neighborhood that had implemented these risk reduction materials and efforts. And it was actually a safer home and a safer neighborhood. By by applying these these measures and these ideas. So it's about education and making sure they understand what we're trying to do. We're not we're certainly not trying to cost people any money. We're trying to save their money and reduce their risk long term.

Steve:
Well, and I wonder, too, I mean, to your point, if I was a prospective home buyer, I might be willing to pay a little bit more knowing that I was able to move into a more fire safe home than before. And to your earlier point, I would imagine then that that may also prove beneficial when trying to secure that same home insurance that we talked about.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
Exactly. You know, back in the day before, there was a state mandate to provide fire sprinklers in every dwelling, for example, it was very common that if voluntarily someone provided sprinklers for their home, they could realize as much as a 15% reduction on their on their premiums. Now, that's not exactly across the board today, but if folks did provide fire safety measures in their home, they needed to bring that to the attention of their insurance company. There's a possibility that they could receive some type of reduction or benefit, not just in the risk reduction itself, but in their costs associated with other insurance. There's certainly no guarantees, but it certainly couldn't hurt to ask. Now, I would expect that at some time in the future, given the regulations that are not only proposed here in the city of Redding, but also that we can look forward to in the state of California. I would expect the insurance industry to pay a little bit more attention now that there are, in fact, risk reduction measures being taken both local and statewide. It just seems to make sense. I can't point to anything solid or concrete. It's just to fill in a given the conversations, what we're listening to coming from the insurance industry and listening to the regulators statewide.

Katie:
Craig, maybe you can just wrap us up with what are the next steps? So we're we're discussing the the wildfire ordinances. We've had some community workshops. What's the process by which these might be implemented?

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
We're holding off because we want to make sure we get enough community feedback. As I mentioned, that the workshops have been completed, but there's still time for the community to give us their input or give us a call, stop by to talk to us. We'd be glad to explain these proposals to them. But once we have digested, if you will, all the community feedback, we're going to be going back to council, presenting the regulations to council once again and then going after council to the Planning Commission. Planning Commission has a fantastic way of vetting out ideas. We want to make sure it's vetted through both City Council and Planning Commission before it's implemented. So it'll be a couple of months before we're looking at implementation at the very soonest. But again, I can't stress enough community input. I want to make sure folks have enough time to not only ask questions, but understand what these proposals mean and what they might mean for every property out there. Once again, reach out to a local fire authority and how it's explained to them, and if a personal inspection is necessary, then we'll try our best to arrange that. We don't have that much staffing, but I want to make sure folks understand what's going on.

Katie:
So is there anything you'd like to leave? Us with before we wrap.

Fire Marshal Craig Wittner:
Given where we live in our history of wildfire in the city, Redding, California and Shasta County, it's not going to get any easier with regard to the weather. We can't control the weather. We know we're going to have more fires and we have to expect that we're going to have to deal with them. So these are our efforts thus far to deal with the wildfire risk. Folks need to pay attention to it and they need to be prepared. So listen to the fire safety messages that are out there. If you have questions, call your local fire authority. That's what we're here for and we're here to make folks safer and reduce risk. And that's really what we want community wide.

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