Time for New Thinking on Wildfires: Solutions for halting the cycle of burn, blame, repeat.

The deadly Southern California wildfires that erupted over 45 square miles of Los Angeles County in January cry out for a new approach to preventing and fighting wildfires and fire-proofing buildings.

Fueled by extreme drought and fanned by unprecedented Santa Ana winds, the Palisades and Eaton fires destroyed more than 16,000 structures, killed at least 29 people and scorched more than 37,000 acres before they were finally fully contained Jan. 31.

Amid allegations that California’s state government cut back on firefighters, equipment, brush clearance, and preparedness, it’s clear that we need a better way forward than the cycle of recrimination, lawsuits, and more fires.

This is critical, as climate change fuels more extreme weather events worldwide, including drought and wildfires — which are frequently followed in California by flooding rains and mudslides, causing even more destruction.

While the fires were still raging and my family was, like thousands of Californians, without electricity, I was asked for my thoughts on how we can break out of this cycle to do a better job of fire-proofing our region.

1. State and local governments must appropriate much more funding for water reserves, brush clearance, forest management, firefighters, and firefighting equipment — especially from the air.
2. Building methodologies and codes must be restructured to move away from building with flammable materials. Building wood-frame structures is tantamount to building with gasoline. We have to build with more nonflammable materials, such as concrete and steel.
3. The new trend of insurance companies and wealthy homeowners hiring private firefighters who have their own water/hose trucks is a great idea, but it’s terribly expensive and, of course, elitist. I propose instead we reinstate the old idea of volunteer fire departments, but on an extremely local level of small communities, down to even just a few blocks. Small enclaves of homeowners can own their own water/hose truck and be trained in maintaining and using it.
4. Insurance is an enormous problem. California has once again tried to control free enterprise and claim they are protecting the public by severely limiting the ability of insurance companies to raise their premiums. The result is that insurance companies have been losing billions of dollars covering Californians through extraordinary disasters, so they have decided to simply not write policies in California. This is leaving millions of Californians either under-insured or completely naked (no insurance). California must restructure to invite the insurance companies back and give them the ability to raise premiums commensurate with their costs, risks, and reasonable profit.

Beyond these solutions, the state and federal governments must use either extreme brush clearance or controlled burning to reduce the load of fuel that’s sitting on the ground waiting to be turned into an inferno by a careless smoker, stray spark, or lightning strike. Last year, the U.S. Forest Service halted controlled burning on its lands in the state amid uncertainty over funding for fire suppression efforts. It shouldn’t take a disaster of the magnitude of January’s fires to get federal, state, and local governments to work together to stop the cycle of burn, blame, repeat.

Written by Mitch Francis.
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