Marin wildfire agency says compliance poor on defensible space
Blog note: This article refers to Marin County award-winning report that lead
to the formation of Marin Wildlife Prevention Authority.
Despite
historic wildfire risk, too many Marin residents are still failing to create
defensible space around their homes by clearing away combustible materials,
Marin County fire officials said.
“To
date for this fire season, we’ve done about 25,000 evaluations, and our
compliance rate is between 30% and 50%,” which is below the state average, said
Mark Brown, executive officer of the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority.
“We’re
not satisfied at all,” he said. “We need to get the number up. There is no doubt.”
Marin
County fire Chief Jason Weber said, “We know that noncompliance number is very
high, and we’re working for those folks to become compliant.”
The authority is not issuing citations or fining people who fail
to comply with defensible space requirements established by the state, despite
a 2019 Marin County Civil Grand Jury report recommending it do so.
“We
really haven’t been going the citation route,” Brown said. “We’ve been going
the education route. It seems we get better compliance through that route
rather than citing people.”
Brown
said one reason fewer homeowners in Marin are passing inspections than in other
parts of the state is that Marin’s inspectors “are looking at properties with a
much more critical eye than some other jurisdictions.”
Weber
said, “Some of these
“We’re
going to become more stringent over the next few years.”
—
Chief Jason Weber, Marin County Fire Department
Marin
Independent Journal
By Richard Halstead, rhalstead@marinij.com
August 17, 2021
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