Letters to the Editor: Zone Zero regulations are too simplistic to solve a ‘seriously complex problem’

To the editor: The reason the fire zone regulations are mired in delay is that they are a simplistic attempt to solve a seriously complex problem (“How Zone Zero, designed to protect California homes from wildfire, became plagued with controversy and delays,” Nov. 3). Take, for instance, the probation against storing firewood inside the 30-foot-wide Zone One. While my neighbor might not like the description, from my point of view, their house is a pile of firewood and building codes will generally place it within 10 to 12 feet from mine.

In both the Eaton and Palisades fires, radiant heat from one burning home would ignite its neighbor and so on down the line until the end of the block or a vacant lot interrupted the process. Embers from an entire block of burning houses combined with hurricane-force winds to ignite homes downwind and the process repeated over and over.

A structure’s vulnerability to fire is a shifting combination of weather, topography, building codes, materials, design, maintenance, flora, fauna and especially human activity. Removing all flammable materials within Zone Zero is not going to solve our problems, but piling your firewood against the house under the eaves isn’t a good idea either. What we need is education and monitoring.

John Sherwood, Topanga