A.D. In December 2018, a month after a camp fire killed 85 residents and approached paradise, Nevada County residents stormed a city hall in the deep forest. Residents raised questions of life or death, fearing the county would become the next California fire station.
They wanted to know what happens when telephone lines and cell towers are isolated during a fire, where to turn off the gas, how to get evacuation training, and how to contact people with disabilities or homeless people.
Over the past four years, California has invested heavily in fire prevention and education. But now that 60 percent of the country is experiencing a drought or drought, it is still a time of competition to help communities that are vulnerable to wildfires, but they have not been able to pay for the fire.
Climate change is causing fires to burn faster and spread faster, prolonging wildfires throughout the calendar year. Twelve major fires in California history have occurred over the past seven years, introducing horrible phrases such as “hurricane” into a dictionary.
How severe is the drought in the West?Very dry in the 12th century – ‘and it could be worse’
About a quarter of the state’s population lives in areas where city budgets, including WUI-Paradise, Greenville and Nevada, are crowded and government fire protection dollars are starting to fall.
A recent study found that at least one in 12 homes in California could be destroyed by wildfires.
Road and Fire Analysis Analysis concludes that one of the 100 California Zip Codes is the People-to-Exit-Rate ratio worse than Paradise.
‘It was a riot’Campfire flies into paradise, triggering a vicious and chaotic persecution.
Nevada County is located northeast of Sacramento in the grasslands and highlands of Sierra Leone, covering Lake Tahoe and affecting the state of Nevada. In Nevada, there is a golden rush and the swaying Pondrosa pine, and many have died.
Destroyed by overcrowded tree bark, dried trees accelerate fires, and some remain on their property for years like matchsticks. According to Pascal Fusseller, co-founder and co-founder of the Ubanet News Agency since 1999, firefighting funds have been flowing from state and federal coffers, but the burden of clearing these trees still rests with residents.
Golden Forest City is about to fall.A small California town fire is about to go off the map. He is now fighting to rebuild.
“It costs thousands of dollars and $ 500 to cut down a tree,” he said. “If 10 trees are destroyed by beetles, they will not be able to buy that.”
Nevada County, which has a poverty rate of 12%, is not the poorest state in the state – that is 27% of Tulare County – but it has a significant aging population and a high risk of dying from fire. And it has become a popular destination for retirees. According to the census, one-third of the population is at least 65 years old. A.D. Between 2007 and 2016, Nevada County records show a significant proportion of the population between the ages of 65 and 74 (80%) and 85 and over (57%).
Wildfire research;Most Washington County residents will face severe fire over the next 30 years.
The elderly, the poor, and the disabled are most at risk of fire, and the greater the number of people living below the poverty line, the greater the impact on society when disaster strikes. A recent article from the Bureau of Economic Economics concludes that environmental disasters, such as fires, make poor people more likely to be left behind.
California has a $ 21 billion climate package
California’s budget for 2022-2023, approved by the legislature last week, includes $ 21 billion in wildfire efforts for the climate package, but the exact allocation is among those negotiating with Gavin Gavin Newsom.
The ruler He is committed to working on 500,000 hectares of fire protection by 2025, and has supported a new civil servant to prevent fires. At the federal level, a bilateral infrastructure law signed by President Biden last year allocated $ 131 million to reduce wildfires in eight western states, including California. But given the size of the area and the high demand, many rural communities fear that no matter how much money they spend, it will not stop them from becoming the next paradise.
A new state program that offers up to $ 20,000 for home reinforcement and $ 6,000 for “application for defensive space” has been rolled out in three of San Diego County’s three most vulnerable communities, including deforestation, followed by the rest of the program next year.
According to Fushcher, the money is important but not enough. He said the $ 6,000 protection grant would cover one to three trees depending on the location and size of the tree, but did not have to pay for the timber to be removed from the property. It should be with bark beetle trees.
The fire that burns beyond the fire-What we have learned from the fiery furnace
Government officials say over the past three years, the state has significantly increased funding for firefighting, and communities at risk of fire must apply and apply for funding. Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the California Governor’s Emergency Services Office, said working together is for the whole community.
“If you do the work to strengthen your house but your neighbor does not work and their house is a torch, the community will not work,” Ferguson said.
Part of the effort to protect communities is to explain why everyone should lose weight, from leaf removal to controlled community fires to home and why it is important. Listos, a state initiative, has spent $ 25 million to educate the community about fire hazards and possible personal and collective action.
“This includes basic steps, such as how to pack your wallet or register alerts,” Ferguson said. Instead of going from top to bottom, the messages are picked up by trusted messengers in the community, perhaps by the local fire department or church.
“All hazards are local, and the community aspect is important,” Ferguson said. “We spend as much resources as possible, but peer-to-peer education is the best way. Your neighbors may be older, and it may be your decision to help them get ready.”
Lysttos (Spanish means “ready”) focuses on vulnerable and often hard-to-reach people, Ferguson added.
Rural communities are often left behind by financial competition.
In Nevada City and County, some community efforts include citizen-controlled fires, neighborhood homeowners’ efforts to clean brushes, and the rent of goats for fuel. But there are still large-scale defense efforts, such as deforestation, that have not been lifted off the ground and have not received financial support, Fusshoeller said.
“Cal Fire prisoners work hard on public lands for wages,” Fusseller said. However, there are not enough firefighters to carry out ordered fires. And with a 100-year-old herbal record, it’s hard to keep up. Workers first go to work over an open fire. There is also no mill in California that can carry more trees. They are still throwing trees at the last of the fires. ”
‘People Are Moving Out’Burning of the Fire Cal Fire PTSD, unable to cope with severe workloads
Nevada City and County have a number of urgent needs that require significant investment. Improved rural roads for rapid displacement, broadband coverage and rural cell towers, as well as an inverted 911 system, so people can get fire alarms.
The city of Nevada, with a population of more than 3,000, has only two suburbs, Highway 20 and Highway 49, and crews were working in the spring to remove trees damaged by winter storms. The annual budget is $ 5 million, with 1,600 miles of private roads in various crash states.
Nevada City Planner Amy Wolfson said it is an ongoing effort to raise funds for fire prevention and is always project-based.
“The city sometimes succeeds in subsidizing tree removal in public places, but not always,” Wolfson said in an email. “Financial support and manpower supply are both sustained speeds to effectively address this ongoing threat.”
Forest and fire;How dense forests shrink and prevent another megaphone
Some good news Nevada County and Nevada County Fire Council, both part of the California Environmental Fire Protection Project, have recently received funding for woodcutting and green waste disposal services.
Some of those federal grants need to be restructured to enable rural communities to compete in the fight for funding, says Headwaters Economics, a non-profit community development and land management research group.
According to an analysis of FEMA’s Building Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) support program, well-intentioned federal efforts are fairly distributed and small amounts of money are available to the most vulnerable rural communities.
According to the study, 94% of the funding went to coastal states, which included high-capacity, on-staff engineers, full-time secretaries and budget accounting teams. Major Water Economics also determined that poor US regions and communities have an unimaginable risk of catastrophic damage.
Although individuals and communities are not doing enough to prevent it, it is clear that almost everyone has seen the danger.
“It was a big alarm for people in the campfire,” Ferguson said. And there is a growing awareness that there is no longer a “fire season.” In May, Fussለርller had to close the interview because of a nearby fire.
