Santa Barbara County fire inspectors conduct yearly property checks for defensible space requirements and, most residents have been complying with the wildfire guidelines, officials say.
CalFire and local fire agencies recommend and require homeowners in the Wildland Urban Interface to control vegetation around their homes to give the structures a better chance of surviving a wildfire.
Wildfires are a regular occurrence in Santa Barbara County, with three reported so far this month. One of them, the Holiday Fire that broke out during an intense heat wave July 6, destroyed 10 homes and several other buildings above Goleta.
The Ready! Set! Go! plan outlines defensible space as “the area around a structure free of flammable plants and objects that creates a zone in which firefighters can operate safely in order to help protect a home during a wildfire. This space is wide enough to prevent direct flame impingement and reduce the amount of radiant heat reaching the structure.”
All flammable vegetation within 30-50 feet of structures in high hazard zones should be removed, and more vegetation should be controlled within 100 feet of structures, according to the guidelines.
As part of its prevention program, every year, the county Fire Department sends notices to all property owners in the Wildland Urban Interface high fire hazard areas (within its jurisdiction), and then conducts inspections to see if people complied with the defensible space requirements, Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason told Noozhawk.
Those inspections started on June 1 this year and, so far, people have been cutting back vegetation as required, he added.
Eliason said property owners who do not comply with the guidelines by the required deadline receive a misdemeanor citation and may have to appear in court.
If the fire department has to mitigate the fire hazard, the homeowner must pay the costs, Eliason said. For repeat offenders, fines are added to the residence’s property tax.
— Noozhawk intern Dhiraj Nallapaneni can be reached at news@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, and become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.