SITUATION:
What is and can the State of California Government and Forestry service do to prevent more massive fires in the future?
SIGNIFICANCE:
The Independent Institute has researched & develop a working list of things that the State and Forestry & Cal Fire can do.
See List of 26 recommended actions and considerations.[ Near the bottom of the Link]
SOLUTIONS : [ From Independent Institute List — See and Study detail for each of the 26 Recommendations. [SEE LINK]
Recommendations for Prevention, Early Detection, and Rapid Suppression of California Wildfires
- Emphasize proactive forest management and forest restoration
- Conduct more prescribed or controlled burns
- Allow low-intensity natural fires to burn
- Encourage more use of “fire breaks” and “fuel breaks
- Allow private-property owners to more easily remove trees and provide active forest management through forest thinning and the creation of breaks, especially near communities
- Hire more private firefighters
- Inject competition and market discipline into electricity markets by ending the monopoly customer safety and less on the pet projects of politicians and regulators protections of utility companies, encouraging utilities to focus more on customer safety.
- End California housing policies that encourage more people to live in fire-prone areas.
- Stop government interference in the home insurance market in California
- Review investigative procedures and budgets to ensure legal accountability for people and companies who start wildfires
- Deploy more early-detection systems to quickly identify fires in California forests and in wildland-urban interfaces.
- Deploy Internet of Things-connected sensors
- Use more artificial intelligence to analyze data and improve firefighting
- Improve wildfire alert systems
- Use steel poles to hold electricity lines
- Use new and improved fire retardant
- Deploy more firefighting robots such as Thermite
- Replicate Israel’s Matash system in California
- Encourage “home hardening” through the installation of exterior fire sprinklers and fireproofing of buildings.
- Encourage the under grounding of electrical lines in high-risk areas
- Enable fast, targeted cutoff of power lines during high-risk incidents to prevent electrical arcs or downed power lines from sparking wildfires
- Insulate power lines
- Use innovative technology on aircraft and satellites.
- Invest in an overwhelming strike force to rapidly suppress large fires
- Use virtual reality simulations to improve firefighter training.
- Encourage more private stewardship of California land
CONCLUSION [ How Projects Are to Prevent Fires Are Taking Shape]
Cal Fire has begun the process with 35 fast-tracked priority projects across the state involving 60,000 acres.
Plans call for 10 new fuel-reduction crews under Cal Fire’s command.
THOSE STATE AGENCIES TAKING ACTION:
The California Department of Forestry
Fire Protection (Cal Fire) is a fire department of the CNRA.
California Natural Resources Agency in California
Fire chief: Thom Porter
SOURCES:
These Intensive & Extensive List of Action-ables were compiled from the Independent Institute –
