Incentive for Wildfire Safety

The Palisadian-Post has partnered with locally founded environmental organization Resilient Palisades to deliver a weekly “green tip” to our readers. This week’s tip was written by Éva Milan Engel.

A couple of years ago, my family received notice from our homeowner’s insurance that our policy would not be renewed because we were in a “high wildfire zone,” according to the insurer’s assessment.

Woolsey fire 2018, seen from the Palisades

My parents contacted our agent and learned that the company was no longer insuring any property in the 90272 zip code. My parents scrambled to find new insurance coverage, as did many other Palisadians, according to posts on Nextdoor. We eventually secured a new policy—at a much higher rate.

Cancellations and enormous insurance rate increases have plagued Californians in wildfire-prone areas for the last four years. In that time, we’ve dealt with larger, faster-moving and more frequent fires fueled by climate change. Fifteen of the state’s 20 most destructive wildfires on record have occurred since 2015, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

It’s not only a safety and financial issue, it’s a climate problem as well. A newly released UCLA climate study found that California wildfires released so much carbon in 2020 alone that it wiped out all of the state’s greenhouse gas reduction gains from the previous 16 years.

Now, in response, California is requiring that insurance companies reward owners of homes and businesses that take preventive action.

The California Department of Insurance issued rules that require insurers to offer discounts to property owners for wildfire safety and mitigation actions. Under the new rules, insurance companies have 180 days to assign a property with a “wildfire risk score,” and it gives property owners the right to appeal the score.

California will be the first state in the nation to offer such incentives. A set of guidelines called “Safer From Wildfires” details steps that can be taken to get insurance discounts:

Protecting the Structure

• Class-A fire rated roof

• Maintain a five-foot ember-resistant zone around a home (including fencing within five feet)

• Noncombustible six inches at the bottom of exterior walls

• Ember- and fire-resistant vents

• Upgraded windows (double paned or added shutters)

• Enclosed eaves

Protecting theImmediate Surroundings

• Cleared vegetation and debris from under decks

• Removal of combustible shed and other outbuildings from the immediate surroundings of the home, to at least a distance of 30 feet

• Defensible space compliance (including trimming trees, removal of brush and debris from yard, and compliance with state law and local ordinances)

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By taking some of these sensible steps, Palisadians can help make our community safer while saving money and combating climate change. Sounds like a win-win-win.