Frightening Realities About Fire in Plumas County

Beckwourth FPD 1. C-Road CSD

There is no clear way for landowners to ascertain if their property taxes are paying for fire protection services.

City of Portola FPD 3. Greenhorn CSD

Crescent Mills FPD 4. Indian Valley CSD

Eastern Plumas FPD 5. Long Valley CSD

Graeagle FPD 6. Plumas Eureka CSD

Hamilton Branch FPD 7. West Almanor CSD

Prattville-Almanor FPD

Sierra Valley FPD It is generally understood that there are two critically important elements to successfully protect structures from being destroyed by fire. The first is proximity to and services received from fire protection service providers. The hallmark descriptor is universally understood to be response time, or how long will it take emergency fire protection staff and equipment to arrive at an incident. The second essential necessity in the saving of persons’ property from structural fire is an immediately available emergency water supply. Current structural fire fighting vehicles here in Plumas County pump water at a rate of 1,000 gallons per minute and require sustained water flows approximating one hour to save a typical residential structure; that would amount to a sustained water supply of 60,000 gallons per pumper truck. There was consensus among fire experts providing testimony that Plumas County could support one to five fire emergency services districts. Those fire and emergency service providers are needed to protect all parcels and structures within the County. Clearly, increasing the number of districts is not what the experts have recommended, nor would it be cost effective. Plumas County Fire Safe Council Individual wildland fires cause the most property destruction of all categories of fire emergencies. All Californians, as well as Plumas County residents, will not soon forget the Oakland Hills Inferno, the Malibu Canyons wildfires, or the very recent Angora Fire located in the South Lake Tahoe Basin that destroyed 309 residential and business structures. Etched in everyone’s memories are those vivid televised images of block after block of destroyed buildings. Wildland fires occur in what has been termed a community-at-risk (CAR). All Plumas County communities are communities-at-risk. Typically homeowners prize these zones as they represent the aesthetically attractive midpoint between the edge of suburbia and most typically beautiful forested areas. Hilly terrain offering premium vistas are frequently a distinct asset of a community-at-risk. Unfortunately, extreme fire hazards are commonly ignored by individuals purchasing property in these zones. Here in Plumas County one voluntary organization, the Fire Safe Council, has made tremendous strides by developing a model that mitigates the wildland fire danger inherent to all community-at-risk zones. The Grand Jury found that the use and enforcement of fire codes and standards varies depending on whether they are being applied to a structure (homes, outbuildings, and commercial buildings), to the area immediately surrounding a structure (defensible space, access roads, turnarounds, fuel tanks and emergency water for fighting fires) or to the nearby wildlands (national and private forests as well as grasslands). In Plumas County, responsibility for prevention and mitigation of hazardous fire conditions in forests next to family residences belongs to the US Forest Service, if the forest is a national forest. If the forest is privately owned, it is the responsibility of the landowner with the possibility of additional assistance from a private, nongovernmental organization, the Plumas County Fire Safe Council. Thousands of Plumas County residents’ homes are located in or next to forests, in what has been termed communities-at-risk. The overriding concern facing homeowners located in this environment is the threat of wildland fire. While the State of California has enacted legislation extending the defensible space perimeter requirement around homes from 30 to 100 feet, wildland fires represent an even greater threat than ever before to homeowners in forested areas. This is because most forests have not benefited from naturally occurring, periodic forest fires that consumed naturally occurring fuels. This hazardous situation has been compounded as the number of 37 homes being built in the forest interface has rapidly increased during the last 10 to 15 years. During the past several years the Plumas County Fire Safe Council (PCFSC) has developed grant funded projects that have served groups of homeowners, homeowners associations, and other groups in mitigating or reducing the quantity of wildland fire fuels on our forest floors. These projects thin forested areas, remove fire ladder vegetation that frequently leads to devastating crown fires in addition to removing combustible materials that result in healthier, safer and more attractive forested areas. In summary, these projects provide a responsible alternative to periodic wildfires. The Mission Statement of the PCFSC is: To reduce the loss of natural and manmade resources caused by wildfire through Firewise community programs and pre-fire activities. The Council maintains an informative webpage: Fire Services - CAL FIRE In round figures, two-thirds of the Plumas County land surface is part of the Plumas and Lassen National Forest. and Lassen Volcanic National Park; the remaining one-third is comprised of privately owned parcels of which a substantial majority are located in what California has designated as this county’s State Responsibility Area (SRA). Exceptions to this classification are parcels within Local Responsibility Areas (LRA) that include the lands within the City Limits of Portola, a relatively large area surrounding Chester, two small areas of several blocks each located in Quincy, and small areas near the fire houses in Graeagle, Whitehawk, Beckwourth, and Chilcoot. Plumas County’s SRA includes numerous approved subdivisions as well as privately owned forest production and agricultural parcels. The SRA and LRA designations were actually made by CAL FIRE on behalf of the State a number of years ago and every five years that agency is required to revisit and evaluate those classifications. Currently that every five-year evaluation is being implemented in this county. CAL FIRE is also fiscally responsible for protection from and prevention of wildland fires including forested and agricultural lands as well as structures. Superficially it would appear to be a “good thing” that a majority of Plumas County residents’ homes are located in designated SRA’s. Statewide CAL FIRE has an outstanding reputation for its emergency fire protection services. CAL FIRE’s presence in Plumas County is extremely limited. CAL FIRE does not employ any emergency responders, nor does it house any firefighting equipment within our county. The situation occurred almost 20 years ago in 1991 with the adoption of a “Cooperative Fire Management Agreement” (CFMA) between the US Forest Service and CAL FIRE. CAL FIRE traded off its Plumas County acreage emergency services responsibilities to the US Forest Service in exchange for acreage located somewhere else. The missions of the Federal and State agencies are quite different. The US Forest Service attempts to protect the national forests, while CAL FIRE protects forests and also provides structural fire protection in locales where it has an active presence. CAL FIRE does maintain a small administrative presence in Quincy; however, the reality of having a SRA designation is essentially meaningless for our county residents. In designated SRA’s, CAL FIRE has the fiscal responsibility for provision of the following services: