The Wildfire Problem
Climate change has resulted in higher year-long temperatures and increasing dry weather conditions in California, resulting in extended, sometimes multiyear, droughts; extended wildfire seasons throughout the year, with higher temperatures during dry season conditions; and impacts on vegetation wildfire fuel loads and increasing decay and loss of vegetation due to insect infestations and plant diseases.
Wildfires have grown larger and have increased in intensity over the last several decades. As compared with 1986, wildfires in the western United States have occurred nearly four times more often, burning more than six times the land area and lasting almost five times as long. Through the end of the 2020 calendar year, 12 of the 20 most destructive wildfires in California have occurred in the last 10 years. Since the beginning of the the 2020 year, wildfires have burned over 3.1 million acres in California. There have been 12 fatalities and over 3,900 structures destroyed. 2020 is already a record-breaking year, in not only the total amount of acres burned but 6 of the top 20 largest wildfires in California history have occurred in 2020. The 2018 calendar year witnessed the most destructive wildfires in California history in terms of the loss of life and structures.
The size of wildfires in the last decade, enormous wildfires have consumed vast areas, including the 2013 Rim Fire impacting national park and national forest lands, the 2017 Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley, and Santa Rosa wildfires, the 2017 Thomas Fire impacting 200,000 acres and the 2018 Camp Fire. The 2020 LNU and SCU Complex Fires combined burning over 750,000 acres.
Occupied wildfire areas have resulted in enormous human and financial costs, including the following:
(1) The 2003 San Diego Cedar Fire, which resulted in 15 deaths and the loss of 2,000 structures.
(2) The 2017 Tubbs Fire, which resulted in 22 deaths, the loss of 5,643 structures, and a total financial loss of approximately $1.3 billion in 2017 United States dollars.
(3) The 2017 Thomas Fire, which resulted in two deaths, the loss of more than 1,000 homes, and a total financial loss of approximately $2.2 billion in 2018 United States dollars.
(4) The 2018 Camp Fire, which resulted in 89 deaths, the loss of 18,804 structures, and at least $12.4 billion in 2018 United States dollars in insured losses.
(5) The 2020 August Complex fire, is now officially the largest blaze in California history. North of Sacramento, burning more than 471,000 acres, another grim milestone in what is already the state's most destructive fire year on record.
More than 2,000,000 California households are located within or in “high” or “very high” fire hazard severity zones identified on maps drawn by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Additionally, areas subject to seismic risks confront the likelihood that wildfires could result from downed power lines and ruptures of natural gas lines caused by earthquakes.
There is a pressing need for wildfire prevention and minimization strategies, on an area-specific basis, that combine increased wildfire resistance within developed areas to minimize wildfire impacts with vegetation management measures in wildlands to prevent or severely limit large-scale wildfires from developing and spreading. Further, there is a need to provide funding for the hardening of homes and other structures to increase their resistance to wildfires.
On or after July 1, 2021, the bill would require a seller of real property located in a high or very high fire hazard severity zone to provide specified documentation to the buyer that the real property is in compliance with the wildfire protection measures described above or a local vegetation management ordinance, or enter into an agreement with the buyer pursuant to which the buyer will obtain documentation of compliance, as provided.
Real Estate and California Assembly Bill No. 38
This bill, on or after January 1, 2021, would require the seller of any real property located in a high or very high fire hazard severity zone to provide a prescribed disclosure notice to the buyer, if the home was constructed before January 1, 2020, of information relating to fire hardening improvements on the property and a list of specified features that may make the home vulnerable to wildfire and flying embers and which features, if any, that exist on the home of which the seller is aware. The bill, on or after July 1, 2025, would require the disclosure notice to also include the State Fire Marshal’s list of low-cost retrofits. The bill would also require a seller who has obtained a specified final inspection report to provide to the buyer a copy of that report or information on where a copy may be obtained.
For further information contact WHHS.
