With the Franklin Fire now fully contained, Malibu city leaders and first responders held a town hall discussion with residents, putting forth proposals on how to prevent the problems this emergency produced from occurring again next fire season.
The damage to 24 structures weighed heavily on residents’ minds, and suggestions were made that sprinklers on the roofs of homes in the fire zone might have prevented the destruction. But Los Angeles County Fire Risk Reduction Chief Albert Yanigasawa said it’s not as simple as it sounds.
“You have to have enough water to supply the sprinklers,” he said. “It's difficult to determine how powerful those sprinklers should be based on what the threat of the fire is, and when you have the power shutoffs, if you don't have a generator or some kind of a backup energy storage system, the pumps are not going to work.”
City leaders also said they'll be seeking modifications to Southern California Edison's public safety power shut off program. Mayor Doug Stewart said they’re working to prevent problems that came about due to the prolonged shutoffs, including the impacts it had on other utilities.
“I think it's a fact of life that we're going to have to have some kind of power shutoffs in the case of potential fire risk, but it doesn't have to be this intense or this damaging to everybody,” he said. “We also need to make sure we can try and alleviate some of the issues for people that need medical devices and also gas stations and so forth. This extends to the cell service providers and the internet providers as well as our notification systems.”
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Stewart suggested that the five cities on the western end of L.A. County join forces and collectively seek policy and infrastructure changes to prevent prolonged shutdowns before the 2025 fire season begins.
The city will also continue efforts to seek emergency federal aid.to repair infrastructure damage.
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