In the state of California,
lax building codes,
and low insurance rates,
encouraged people
to flee expensive cities,
to live in less expensive
fire-prone areas.
California, a 'green state',
lowered the cost
of people encroaching
on nature by living
near or 'in the woods'.
Permissive building codes,
low insurance rates
and soaring taxpayer
spending on firefighting,
all encourage people
to flee expensive cities
for places once thought
to be too hilly, or too dry,
for safe living.
More California homes
are now located
in the fire-prone border,
between civilization
and the forest,
—known as the WUI
( “wildland-urban interface,” )
than in any other state.
Cal Fire, the state
wildfire-fighting agency,
has been spending
more and more money
to put out wildfires,
along with the
U.S. Forest Service.
Most of the money spent
to put out large wildfires
is directly linked
to protecting private
property in the WUI.
The state government
further encourages
development
by pushing roads,
utilities, rescue services
further and further
'into the forest'.
Building codes
may dictate the use of
fire-retardant materials
in house construction,
which makes sense,
but they say nothing
about locating
a new housing
development
dangerously close
to a forest.
In Redding, CA,
for one example,
a developer
was allowed to
build a subdivision
with just one road
in and out,
instead of two.
That was allowed
with an exception
in the building code;
allowing one road
that was wider
than usual,
( but two roads to get out
would have been much safer
during a fast moving wildfire ).
In the past two decades,
over three-quarters
of all buildings destroyed
by wildfires in the state of
in California, were located
in the state’s WUI.
In fact, there have been
more homes destroyed
in California WUI's,
than in all other WUI's,
in all 47 other contiguous
US states, combined.
The average homeowner
in California pays
only $1,000 a year
for homeowner’s
insurance
—about half the cost
in Florida or Texas,
two other states with
rising incidences
of natural disasters
( mainly hurricanes ).
That is a result
of CA state policy.
California has
an elected state
insurance
commissioner,
one of eleven
in the country
who are elected.
The Commissioner
caps the rates that
private insurance
companies can charge.
Artificially-cheap
home insurance,
and the lax
building codes
for the high risk
DUI homes,
are a significant
root cause of the
growing number of
DUI-located homes,
subject to wildfire damage.