VISTA — The Vista Fire Department is preparing to inspect thousands of properties for compliance with defensible space guidelines in the coming months, as part of an ongoing effort to reduce wildfire risk from excessive vegetation, officials told the City Council last week.
Last year, all California jurisdictions were required to adopt the state’s new Fire Hazard Severity Zone map, which sets vegetation management requirements in areas with higher fire risk.
Most homes within the boundaries of the Vista Fire Protection District (VFPD), as well as in southwestern and northeastern Vista, were located in moderate-to-severe fire hazard zones. VFPD covers around 17 square miles of unincorporated area east of Vista and west of Interstate 15, including portions of Bonsall, Twin Oaks, Gopher Canyon and Buena Creek, and is also overseen by the Vista Fire Department.
Property owners in these fire hazard zones must meet certain standards for clearing and reducing fuel, including weeds, bushes, and tree branches within the 100-foot defensible space surrounding their home, under state-mandated ordinances adopted by the city of Vista and the VFPD last year.
Fire officials said they are working hard to educate homeowners and that residents and the fire department need to collaborate to ensure the area is prepared for the possibility of a fire.
“We’ve been graciously informing the public as much as we can and mitigating a lot of the fuel that’s out there,” Deputy Chief Bret Davidson said at the City Council’s March 10 meeting. “We know that wildfire doesn’t wait — that’s our primary threat to the city of Vista and fire district and its residents, and it’s our job to manage that.”
The Vista Fire Department is sending out notice letters to homeowners in the affected areas this week, advising them of the vegetation management requirements and listing contractors who can complete the work.
These requirements include clearing all dead vegetation and trimming all weeds and grass to four inches or less. Property inspections will begin in May, and properties not in compliance will receive abatement notices.
“We went from doing about 1,700 vacant lot inspections to over 8,400 lots between the city and the fire district, so we’ve really quadrupled the amount of inspections we’re doing,” Davidson said.
After abatement notices are sent out, Davidson said the department receives hundreds of calls per week from residents seeking clarification on how to clear their property. Residents can appeal their abatement notice if they believe it was issued in error, either to the city or to VFPD, depending on where they live.
The 100-foot defensible space is divided into three zones, each with its own vegetation-clearing requirements. Zone 0 is within zero to five feet of a house, and is the most restrictive in terms of allowed vegetation and structures; Zone 1 is within 5 to 50 feet; and Zone 2 is within 50 to 100 feet.
Residents in moderate- to severe-fire-hazard zones are currently required to comply with Zone 1 and 2 standards. Enforcement of Zone 0 will be deferred for two more years, due to the costs and effort associated with removal.
Within Zones 1 and 2, any brush or chaparral must be cleared or trimmed and limited to a height of five feet and width of ten feet, and must be at least 30 feet from the home.
Zone 0 prohibits any vegetation in direct contact with the structure and requires all trees, except existing mature trees, to be free of branches below the roofline height. Combustible mulch, made from materials like wood bark, is not permitted, and items and decor such as firewood, shade sails, awnings, arbors, and fences are not permitted to be in contact with the structure.
All zones require the clearing of dead vegetation, including dead palm fronds. These fronds often form a “skirt” around the tree that can present a major fire hazard.
Fire Chief Gerard Washington recognized that clearing the required vegetation can be expensive for residents, and the fire department is working with those owners to come into compliance. Through the city’s partnership with the California Conservation Corps, stipends are available to help cover this work for financially struggling residents.
“Not everybody has the ability to drop $35,000, $50,000 for a quote that a contractor has given them,” Washington said.
Mayor John Franklin thanked the fire department for their good work and said the community is genuinely appreciative of the collaboration and education.
“Excellent work on behalf of the fire department to prevent combustible material from accumulating, which we know is really the only way to prevent fire. Everything else we do is second to that,” Franklin said.
Insurance concerns
Vista Fire is also taking steps to assist residents as they face rising fire insurance costs.
In higher-risk zones in California, some homeowners’ insurance providers have refused to renew policies or withdrawn from the market entirely. Some residents have had to seek fire-only coverage through the state’s FAIR Plan, which acts as a safety net for homeowners in high-risk zones but comes with much higher premiums and less comprehensive coverage.
Vista homeowner Deborah Brandt said she had been insured with Farmers Insurance for over 35 years, paying around $2,600 annually with a $2,500 deductible. However, Farmers dropped her after the state’s new map designated her home as a high fire-risk area.
She had to resort to the FAIR Plan for fire coverage, and is now paying around $7,000 per year with a $10,000 deductible.
“All of this through no fault of my own. This situation is extremely concerning to me,” Brandt said. “Insurance companies must come back to California and provide reasonable rates to homeowners like me. Homeowners who have a responsibility to maintain their property should not be pushed to financial instability simply because of changing risk maps.”
Vista Fire officials said they are doing what they can to ensure people can stay insured. One strategy is for communities to pursue a Firewise designation through the National Fire Protection Association’s Firewise USA Program, which can make property owners eligible for insurance discounts.
In January, the Vista Valley Villas in the Gopher Canyon area became the first Firewise community recognized by the Vista Fire Department, after creating a wildfire risk assessment and action plan and applying through the Firewise USA Program.
“Our goal as a government agency is to do whatever we can to ensure that our residents can stay insured in case they do have a disaster,” Davidson said.
Council members said it’s crucial to lower insurance costs wherever possible.
“I know our rates doubled in the last year and a half. It’s incredibly important that we can make it more affordable for people who have homes or want to buy a home,” said City Councilmember Dan O’Donnell.
Preparing for wildfire
The Vista Fire Department also shared other ongoing initiatives related to fire safety, including innovative digital tools to help the department and community be better prepared.
The city will work with wildfire-risk modeling firm XyloPlan to model potential fire pathways in the city and the fire protection district. XyloPlan uses scientific calculations from recent devastating blazes, including the Palisades and Eaton fires, to inform its models.
To support education and training, the department also invested in a Simtable Platform. The interactive tabletop map can factor in a number of variables to visualize disasters such as fires and floods, as well as to plan evacuations.
Vista Unified School District is also partnering with the fire department and the city to create career pathways in wildland firefighting and emergency medicine, providing students with the certifications and EMS training they need to work in the fire service.
Washington said this program is the first of its kind in the state and benefits students and the city. He thanked Vista Unified Superintendent Matthew Doyle for the partnership.
“It’s giving these young adults an opportunity to be successful, and we need firefighters and paramedics, so this is a great pathway,” said Washington.
Vista Fire also received a grant from the San Diego Workforce Partnership to build a dedicated vegetation management crew to assist with clearing defensible space. The California Conservation Corps is also assisting with clearing the defensible space around the city’s fire stations to further protect the community.
The department is also developing a red-flag warning program that alerts residents to extreme fire weather conditions by raising flags at Vista schools and city facilities. The program would be activated when the National Weather Service issues a red flag warning.
Vista Fire officials reminded the community to utilize emergency preparedness resources and apps, including Alert San Diego, Genasys Protect, Watch Duty, and PulsePoint.
