California’s property insurance industry has run into surprising obstacles in its push for new statewide rules to limit flammable material including bushes and plants in the immediate area around some fire-exposed buildings.
Property insurers and state fire officials say stringent rules are needed to prevent the rapid, uncontrolled spread of wildfires in urban areas, like the ones that engulfed the Los Angeles area in January.
But officials and residents in Southern California, including the Los Angeles Fire Department, say the proposed rules are too strict and would be hard to enforce in urbanized areas that rely on trees for shade and relief from extreme heat.
As a result, the California Board of Forestry said this week it will not meet a year-end deadline to finalize a regulation and needs more time to develop a fire-protection policy that will be widely accepted.
