The Camp Fire put pressure on local officials to figure out how to best reduce the fire risk of vegetation near homes and roads.
Now, the town of Paradise is looking to implement additional requirements on fire-safe landscaping, or defensible space. Town council members voted in a meeting Tuesday night to require residents to clear vegetation from around their homes, their roads and their neighbors’ homes.
The priority was identified in the town’s long-term recovery vision plan hashed out earlier this summer. John Messina, Paradise fire chief, developed and introduced the ordinance.
“That 1 percent fire, that Camp Fire, there’s little defensible space can do. But it does reduce risk for the normal, 99 percent fire,” Messina said. “The only positive with the Camp Fire is that a lot of that vegetation has been reduced, and we’re starting from scratch. But it’s coming.”