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Santa Rosa fire chief describes ordinances, mulch bans and 'ignition-free' rebuilding rules
Summary
Paul Lowenthal of the Santa Rosa Fire Department told lawmakers Santa Rosa adopted an "ignition-free" rebuilding ordinance and a vegetation-management ordinance (including mulch restrictions) after the Tubbs and Glass fires, and urged streamlined grant timelines for on-the-ground work.
Paul Lowenthal, Division Chief Fire Marshal for the Santa Rosa Fire Department, told the Select Committee the city shifted from suppression to prevention after the 2017 fires. "When you look at what happened in 2017, with 6,000 structures destroyed across the city and county... to then fast forward to 2020 ... to have only 32 homes destroyed in the city during that fire out of 1,152 properties impacted really speaks to the improvements in prevention measures," Lowenthal said.
Lowenthal detailed local tools: a community wildfire protection plan (64 action items, 9 objectives), a local "ignition-free zone" ordinance requiring rebuilt homes adopt ignition-resistant construction (his example: local code required three feet of ignition-free construction before state Zone 0 guidance), and a vegetation-management ordinance that bans certain mulches within 30 feet of structures because some mulches are highly receptive to embers. "We watched how many resources we had to tie up to fully extinguish ... the gorilla hair mulch is ... very receptive to embercast," he said.
Lowenthal also cited barriers to action: federal hazard-mitigation grants (HMGP) and other programs have lengthy turnaround and reporting requirements that can stall projects. He told the committee two early HMGP notices of interest were denied and others were delayed before being approved — a timeline problem he said the Legislature could address to accelerate implementation of vegetation and fuels projects.
The hearing recorded no formal votes; the committee said it will consider follow-up work on grant process reforms and potential state support for county prevention coordinators.
