Belmont prepares for wildfires | Local News - San Mateo Daily Journal

Following a series of historically destructive and deadly wildfires throughout the state in recent years, Belmont has launched a robust and collaborative approach to protecting the community from wildfires and it will be implemented in phases over the next year.

“As we’ve seen throughout the state in the last couple years in particular, the danger from wildfire has increased, and where we didn’t think we had certain kinds of risk in the past, we now realize that there is a risk because of the effects of climate change and weather events that are really unusual,” Fire Marshal Robert Marshall said at a meeting Tuesday. “There’s anxiety when it comes to that so we felt that we needed to start something.”

The first phase of the Wildland Fire Mitigation program is devoted to risk assessment. It began in April of last year and will take about one year to complete. Marshall said the state has maps that show “very high fire hazard severity zones” and “high fire hazard severity zones” and Belmont is home to a couple of those areas. But those maps are outdated and not as comprehensive as the maps that will be generated in this first phase of work.

The study area is also larger than Belmont city limits.

“One of the reasons we did that is it was recognized that a fire could start outside of the jurisdiction and move into the jurisdiction and still pose a pretty severe risk so we wanted to make sure we expanded that area,” Marshall said. “We do feel we could get a fire that starts along Interstate 280 that could burn up a hill and burn into a residential development. In order to make sure we’re doing our best we wanted to make sure to expand our boundaries.”

The second phase entails applying for grants to develop the program and to fund mitigation efforts, particularly in public areas like Water Dog Park, Marshall said. In this phase, officials will also craft an ordinance with certain standards for homes in high-risk areas to make them more fire resistant as well as rules for vegetation management.

“If we identify areas that have certain characteristics and they need to be abated and they’re on private property, we would compel the private property owner to take care of the problem,” Marshall said. “If that didn’t happen, then we’d have an abatement process in order to make sure the risk was reduced.”

The third phase entails education and outreach followed by enforcement. Inspectors will likely visit every property in an at-risk area and identify hazards and whether there is compliance with standards.

“We’re hopeful that people will understand the risk,” Marshall said. “We’ll be very transparent with our results as well as the rest of the process to be able to show them that there is indeed a need.”

The fourth phase is an ongoing one in which the program is continually evaluated to make sure it’s effective.

The program is a collaboration with Central County Fire. Marshall said it’s the first of its kind in the state, though other departments are now starting to look into this approach. Belmont currently has a weed abatement program that has been effective, but this new program will be much more robust, he added.

“This is a great addition and we’re already doing a lot,” Councilman Charles Stone said. “Unfortunately, maybe the silver lining to some of these fires in other parts of the state is people are taking this seriously in a way that they haven’t before and that helps make it easier for us to take these steps.”

During public comment, residents expressed concerns about debris piling up along the Ralston Avenue corridor, sometimes on private property, as well as fire engine accessibility in the city’s cul-de-sacs. Another resident called for the placement of power poles to be factored into the risk assessment and suggested officials look into the possibility of undergrounding power poles in fire-prone areas.

Mayor Davina Hurt suggested some sort of program to help low-income residents protect their homes from wildfires and Councilwoman Julia Mates wants to see volunteer work focus on mitigation as well, for example a brush cleanup day.

Marshall also noted one issue moving forward is determining and then informing residents of the most effective evacuation plans should a wildfire occur. Speaking of a notification system specifically, he noted one problem is that people often don’t believe a wildfire is actually occurring at first and need multiple sources to alert them of the danger before they take action.

In other business, the council unanimously passed an ordinance that requires short-term rental companies like Airbnb to collect and remit transient occupancy tax.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 102

Let's block ads! (Why?)