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It’s been six months since the firestorms of January tore through the communities of Pacific Palisades and Altadena. The worst wildfire disaster in Los Angeles history, the Palisades Fire killed 12 people, destroyed 6,837 structures and burned 23,448 acres. The Eaton Fire was even more destructive, killing 18 people, destroying 9,000 structures and burning 14,021 acres. Six months isn’t a long time, but if you weren’t directly effected by the fires, chances are they faded from memory. They are no longer headline news, despite the fact that clean up is still underway and rebuilding is still in the early stages. So at this six month milestone, we wanted to return to a central theme in our podcast, and in all of our work, and that’s preparation. We know that it saves lives, and just because the fires are out, doesn't mean there isn’t another one of the horizon. The time to begin preparing for a wildfire disaster is now. What would you pack, if a wildfire was nearing your home? What would you grab, if you only had a few minutes to save the lives of you, your loved ones, your pets, and your neighbors? That’s what this episode is all about, with our guest, MySafe:LA’s Chris Nevil.

Resources:

• KCAL News Story on Rob Hoover
• Wildfire:LA’s Make a Kit Guide
• MySafe:LA’s Pet Safety Guide
• More Prepared Kits
• SOS Survival Products

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What if saving California’s chaparral ecosystem means we’d be protecting California communities from wildfires? Richard Halsey, the founder of the California Chaparral Institute, says our state’s most abundant biome, chaparral, actually protects our communities from widespread wildfire disasters. And he says the more the state mandates the clearance of native habitats like the chaparral, the more it guarantees that wildfires will destroy communities. Halsey’s decades of fighting for the preservation of natural habitats has found him in court - twice - once in 2004 against the state’s plan to clear hundreds of acres in San Diego County after the Cedar fire, and just recently against CalFire and their plan to clear thousands of acres of wildland throughout the state. He won both lawsuits, but his battle continues. Find out about his fight to save homes from wildfire by saving California’s chaparral.

Resources:

• California Chaparral Institute
• Become a Chaparral Naturalist
• California Chaparral Institute’s Victories in Court
• California Chaparral Institute Home Protection Booklet

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MySafe:LA's Wildfire Fair took place this past Sunday at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. Our non-profit organized the event to help residents have a one-stop solution to finding wildfire information and products. The fair featured 25 booths where attendees could learn about a wide array of products from spray-on fire retardants, to emergency vests pre-loaded with essentials you’ll need if you have to evacuate. Government agencies were also on hand including Los Angeles’ Emergency Management Department and the State’s Department of Insurance. Workshops were held throughout the day. Experts presented on landscape planning, wildfire safety for older adults, home fire retardants, how to become a Firewise site, and updates on California’s current insurance challenges. There was even a Kids' Zone where children learned hands-only CPR and home fire safety, assembled their own emergency Go Bags, and practiced how to Get Low and GO. The fair welcomed at least 300 attendees. It was so successful that we plan to hold three more this year, in LA Council Districts 1, 11, and 12.

Our Executive Officer, David Barrett, carried a microphone into the booths of some of the exhibitors to find out what they have to offer in helping keep Los Angelenos safe in the event of ll. wildfire.

Resources:

• MySafe:LA’s Kids Safety
• PERK (Phoenix Emergency Recovery Kits)
• M-Fire Technologies
• M-Fire Suppression
• WetLine Wildfire Defense
• Fire Coat
• PERCI

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Our guest this week is Silvio Lanzas, the former Fire Chief for the City of Glendale, and the current Chief Operating Officer for the fire retardant manufacturer M-Fire. The company produces and applies a product called AF31 that is water-based and food-grade, and can be sprayed on houses, car batteries, and whole forests. It was invented more than 30 years ago in the UK, it’s made in Torrance, California, and it’s widely used throughout Asia. So why does no one know about it here in wildfire-ravaged California? It might have to do with the dominance in the marketplace of Phos-Check, the red stuff we’ve all seen flowing out of aircraft over wildfires. But Lanzas is trying to change that…one construction site, one EV battery and one house at a time.

Resources:

• M-Fire Technologies
• M-Fire Suppression
• Questions about AF31? Email asklanzas@mfiretechnologies.com

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Five months after the Eaton Fire came charging out of the wildland and destroyed much of the historic city of Altadena, there are still hundreds of families who haven’t been able to return home or start the long process of recovering. This week’s guest says there is a correlation between a family’s insurance carrier, and their ability to recover their lives and rebuild their futures. Joy Chen is a former Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles, and the current CEO of the Multicultural Leadership Institute. But these days, she dedicates much of her time to the organization she co-founded, the Eaton Fire Survivors’ Network, and trying to get the insurance industry to pay out on the hundreds of claims coming from survivors. She believes there is a systematic approach of “delay, deny, discourage and underpay.” She and others in the Eaton Fire Survivors’ Network are pressuring California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to investigate the claims process and freeze any proposed rate hikes. The details of her group’s mission are detailed in this week’s episode.

Resources:

• Eaton Fire Survivors’ Network
• Join Eaton Fire Survivors’ Network Discord
• Letter to California Insurance Commission Ricardo Lara
• New York Times Insurance Survey
• Sign up for Eaton Fire Survivors’ Network June 19th Podcast on Insurance Fraud
• Lawsuit Against Insurers

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In this week’s Episode host Cameron Barrett interviews software developer Jason Brooks who took his experience surviving the Tubbs Fire that destroyed Santa Rose in 2017, as inspiration to design an app that has helped more than a million people make their homes safer from wildfire. Brooks’ app, Fire Aside, is now being used by dozens of municipalities in more than half a dozen states to streamline brush inspections, home hardening and defensible space education and fire prevention efforts. Hear how the app works, and how even Fire Safe Councils and Homeowners’ Associations are leveraging Fire Aside in the fight against wildfires.

Resources:

• Fire Aside
• Chipper Days
• Marin County's Close Call

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In 2020 California passed AB 3074, which established Zone Zero - an ember-resistant zone within five feet of homes in High and Very High Fire Severity Zones (HFHSZ and VHFHSZ). The law was never implemented because the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection needed to identify exactly what would be allowed and not allowed in Zone Zero. Two things have happened recently. 1. The Board of Forestry and Fire Protection released new maps that have expanded the HFHSZ and VHFHSZ. 2. In the wake of the January Firestorms, Governor Newsom issued an executive order requiring the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to finalize rule-making and implement Zone Zero.

What does this mean for homeowners in Los Angeles? We have the answers, and they might not be what you want to hear. Our expert guest this week is Travis Longcore, a UCLA Adjunct Professor of and Co-Chair of the Environmental Science and Engineering Program at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, and a 28-year member of the Los Angeles County Environmental Review Board. And what he tells host Cameron Barrett about the proposed rules around Zone Zero are surprising...to say the least!

Resources:

• Is Your Home in a HFHSZ and VHFHSZ?
• Board of Forestry and Fire Protection’s Proposed Zone Zero Rules
• Register for Updates on Future Zone Zero Meetings with the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection

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This week’s guest is a thought leader and non-profit founder Spencer Glendon, who we met last week in part one of our discussion on how climate change is making our lives riskier, and forcing us to rethink where and how we live. The Palisades and Eaton Fires are just two examples of that increased risk. Glendon brings his expertise in Engineering, and Economics, as well as his experience as an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School and a Senior Fellow at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, to the conversation. He and host Cameron Barrett began their discussion last week with the history of our climate. This week they drill down to what climate change means for Southern California and how rebuilding LA requires some forethought, some big conversations, and some community building.

Resources:

• Probable Futures
• The 2025 Equinoxes Essay
• The History of Risk Markets and Urban Fires
• Fortune article on Fire Insurance
• Harvard Business School article on the LA Fires