Schwarzenegger's record on fire reforms*

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was on the fire lines again today and signaled a possible regulatory reform out of the 2008 firestorm. 

"We should start building mobile homes with fire retardant materials," said Schwarzenegger, referring to the destruction of more than 500 mobile homes in Sylmar that he added "were like matches."

But there has been some debate about how well the state has followed through on lessons learned from previous fires. After the massive 2003 fires, the governor appointed a blue-ribbon commission designed to figure out how to prevent the huge amounts of property damage and loss of life (more than 20 dead) from those blazes. The panel came back with many suggested improvements -- with a price tag so high no one could fully calculate it. Last year, The Times' Megan Garvey and Rong-Gong Lin II investigated and found many of the recommendations from the 2003 fires went unheeded. Details:

Although some improvements have been made since, fire officials said many of the most expensive improvements suggested by various committees and organizations -– with a likely price tag in the billions of dollars -– have not been completed. “We still don’t have any additional firetrucks on the road,” said Dallas Jones, who was director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services between 1999 and 2004 and is now secretary-treasurer of the California Professional Firefighters union. “How many years are we since the '03 fire siege? It takes years, sometimes, to build fleets of equipment, and so far, nothing.”

Of course adding regulations to mobile home construction is a lot less expensive than huge equipment purchases and firefighting hirings.

*Updated: Aaron McLear, a spokesman for the governor, said that Schwarzenegger proposed a fire safety package, "but the legislature didn’t include it in the final budget. This included a lot of the blue ribbon task force recommendations." More on that after the jump.

--Shelby Grad

Photo: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks to the media about the Tea Fire on Saturday in Montecito.  Credit: Sandy Huffaker / Getty Images

Governor Holds Capitol Press Conference Regarding State Budget September 19, 2008

QUESTION: Governor, your CAL FIRE budget is basically status quo despite what happened in Northern California earlier this year. You failed to get your Emergency Response Initiative through. Are you going to come back with your ERI again? And what do you tell people who are on the front lines, like in Southern California going into the Santa Ana wind season, what do you tell them, because of this failure?

GOVERNOR: Well, I have to tell them that it is sad that the safety of the people of California has to suffer over ideology. Because all we have asked for is to increase by a very, very small portion the homeowner insurance, which was like $12 in some cases, $16 a year. And just to get stuck in your ideology and say no to that and not give the firefighters and CAL FIRE and everyone the equipment and the resources that they need in order to really fight those fires -- and we have seen that these fires are increasing -- I think it's terrible.

QUESTION: Are you going to come back -- if I may follow up -- are you going to come back to that?

GOVERNOR: Oh yes, we definitely will be back. Look, there are certain things, like I said, that could not get done, maybe because of elections and other reasons. We will be back and we will be working on those things, because they are very important issues and they need to be taken care of, they need to be addressed. And especially with fire. It's not something that we are brewing up. It's the Blue Ribbon Commission that in 2003 we created with Governor Davis and myself and they had great recommendations, they did really serious work. And I think that the reason why you have commissions like this, with serious players involved, is because you want to follow through and you want to take those things seriously.

Comments

[JimBob]

Judging from a lot of the pictures I've seen during the last few years of fires, there's one apparently simple way to cut down on fire losses. When tracts snake up the ridges of hills, into native hillside, make the developers buy enough land to create a brush-free zone a couple of hundred yards wide around the tract. Make it the law and the code. Make them put a bond in the bank so the zone can be scraped clean every couple of years forever. And don't listen to them cry how this is going to break them, make it impossible to develop. If you don't think these guys are making plenty of money, check out Eli Broad's art collection.

[Don May]

The governor has done NOTHING about the problem. Wood is an obsolete building material, and is the cause of all of the home losses. Wood construction should be outlawed. Here in Malibu, there are billionaires who keep building flammable buildings in a fire area.

[Dennis]

The governor should get some facts straight before he blames the mobile homes. There are already building codes in place. Here is how they work. In CA they are updated every few years. If you build something new or alter an existing condition you must meet that new code requirement. Otherwise the condition is "grandfathered" in and you do not have to make changes. The exceptions are commercial buildings for seismic. It you take a look at the mobile homes that survived, chances they are of newer construction, which is almost identical to any other new home. The vegetation surrounding the mobile home would be more of a factor. All roof systems are fire rated. This goes back years. Fire testing includes three type of tests including spread of flame and burning brand. The burning brand is flying embers that land on a roof and testing determines how long before it burns. I have done testing and there is not much if anything that would have saved these homes. For the governor to simple state that we need to add more fire retardant materials is flippant. There is a fine line with fire retardants in the function as a retardant and health hazards.

I definitely advocate complying with fire ratings in codes but enforcing vegetation would be very cost effective and timely for all. Ohh by the way, we ask our fire fighters to literally put their lives on the line to save our homes, but somehow their need for equipment is on the back burner. How much does one of these fires costs........I bet not as much as the new trucks and gear our fire fighters deserve.......... Come on Gov, man up about the issue.

[Paul Torrez]

In terms of reform I think Arnold needs to be fired he's only allowed our state to deteriorate !!! All he does is talk in front of cameras and blame everyone else (including how mobile homes are made)!

[tarwater]

Fire reform? Nonsense. The governor and few that stand to gain financially want to grow the States human population by 20 million in the next 25 odd years, growth that translates in part to more development in regions with high fire potential. Coupled with climate change induced warmer atmospheric conditions and dryer watershed conditions the future bodes for more fires with greater impacts and larger dollar costs to fight and re-build.

Someday we may get leadership grounded in reality. Until that time look for more nonsense from the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[Daniel]

Can we PLEASE vote this chump out of office.

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

I know you're all getting a 3rd term in NYC but if you could find it in your heart of hearts to leave NYC and save this great state we'd be in your debt forever.

[Chad]

In 2005 Arnold supported a ballot initiative which would have ended death benefits for the families of police officers and firefighters who were killed in the line of duty. Once the public was let onto this backdoor provision, thanks to the reporting of The Times, the public backlash caused him to drop his support. The initiative was pulled from signature circulation and never made it to the ballot.

That alone should show you how much Arnold respects our brave firefighters.

[Patman]

The governator is on the right track. There are inexpensive natural and safe fire retardants available not only to protect mobile homes but to treat and protect homes etc in front of these fires. As well there are natural and safe fire extingushers that stop fires much quicker than water alone and in the long run would save the state and others millions. These safe alternatives could reduce fire fighter man hours by shortening the length of time the fire burns.May be next year Gov? hope so.