Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday that he will issue an executive order to harden communities from wildfires.
In a press release, Newsom said he will direct the State Board of Forestry to advance the implementation of regulations known as "Zone 0,” which mandates an ember-resistant zone within five feet of structures in high fire severity zones.
He added that he will have CALFIRE release updated Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps, which would update local building and planning requirements.
Newsom told CNN it’s part of the “new reality of extremes.”
“Extreme heat, extreme drought. You have droughts and rain bombs,” he said. “You have flooding at the same time you're dealing with droughts. All happening concurrently. There's a new reality - the world we're living in.”
This comes one day after Newsom met with President Trump to discuss wildfire relief. Newsom told CNN that the meeting was productive and that Trump is very focused on water.
“I'm focused on water,” Newsom said. “It's one of the most…I mean, I'm in California. So
this is a top issue for us, and we also extended yesterday different discussions about other areas [that] we can agree that he can move the needle in California water policy.”
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Newsom also outlined the fire rebuild timeline.
“ I say technology in the context of how again we build the infrastructure to keep it safe, to address undergrounding of lines, how we address the larger issues of redundancy in terms of systems,” he said. “But more important than anything else is the need to get the debris removed [in] 30 days. To do the hazardous waste, we want to get 6 to 9 months. Concurrently, people are getting permits.”
On Thursday, the Trump administration EPA chief Lee Zeldin will be in Altadena to survey damage from the Eaton Fire.
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