California’s top firefighter says people should be BANNED from living in fire-prone areas

After several deadly California wildfires ravaged the state destroying more than 250,000 acres of land and killing at least 90 people state-wide, officials are suggesting banning people from living in fire-prone areas. 

California’s top firefighter Ken Pimlott says that the government and citizens must act now to protect their lives and property from future infernos that will inevitably set the state ablaze once again. 

Pimlott, the Director of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, is offering one final warning to his golden state neighbors before retiring from the agency this Friday, ending his 30-year career. 

He suggests the government should ban home construction in vulnerable areas including subdivisions in thickly forested mountainous areas or Southern California canyons surrounded by tinder-dry chaparral. 

California’s top firefighter Ken Pimlott says the local government should ban citizens from living in fire-prone areas after the state was devastated by the vicious Camp Fire and Woolsey Fire this year 

He suggests the government should ban home construction in vulnerable areas including thickly forested mountainous areas or Southern California canyons. Medical personnel pictured above evacuating patients from Paradise on November 8

He suggests the government should ban home construction in vulnerable areas including thickly forested mountainous areas or Southern California canyons. Medical personnel pictured above evacuating patients from Paradise on November 8

However, achieving such bans will be a tough feat as people continue to flock to California, where the population has doubled since 1970 to nearly 40million people. 

The severe housing shortage has pushed construction to rural areas, despite the threat of potential fire. 

Despite the devastating Camp Fire in Butte County and the Woolsey Fire near Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County supervisors approved a massive rural housing development on Tuesday. 

Developers say that the giant 19,000 home community will be prepared for future fires. 

The development, set to be located in the rugged mountains 65 miles north of downtown Los Angeles – a ‘very high’ fire hazard zone – will be built with anti-ember construction and buffers around homes. It will also include four new fire stations and roads wide enough for people to evacuate. 

Pimlott says that if housing communities aren’t banned in fire zones, then they have to buckle down and fireproof construction to stand against not just fires but earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes too.  

Ken Pimlott, the director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, offered state officials a final warning to ban people from living in fire-prone areas

Ken Pimlott, the director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, offered state officials a final warning to ban people from living in fire-prone areas

Pimlott said 'we owe it' to homeowners, firefighters, and communities 'so that they don't have to keep going through what we're going through'. A plane pictured above dropping fire retardant on homes in Lake Elsinore, California on August 8

Pimlott said ‘we owe it’ to homeowners, firefighters, and communities ‘so that they don’t have to keep going through what we’re going through’. A plane pictured above dropping fire retardant on homes in Lake Elsinore, California on August 8

The deadly Camp Fire killed 85 people and burning 14,000 homes to the ground, aerial footage of a burned neighborhood in Paradise pictured above on November 15

The deadly Camp Fire killed 85 people and burning 14,000 homes to the ground, aerial footage of a burned neighborhood in Paradise pictured above on November 15

Commercial and public buildings should also be built strong enough to withstand fires and be a shelter for hundreds when fires spark. 

California is already home to the nation’s most robust building requirement programs for new homes in fire-prone areas. 

Now it’s up to local land managers or state level legislators to crack down and ban construction in vulnerable areas. 

Pimlott said ‘we owe it’ to homeowners, firefighters, and communities ‘so that they don’t have to keep going through what we’re going through’. 

‘We’ve got to continue to raise the bar on what we’re doing and local land-use planning decisions have to be part of that discussion,’ he said to AP. 

This year has been an incredibly difficult one for California. After two years of drought, much of the state’s forests and mountains went up in flames.

This year's wildfires have been the deadliest in a century for the state of California. Embers pictured above in the Delta Fire on September 6

This year’s wildfires have been the deadliest in a century for the state of California. Embers pictured above in the Delta Fire on September 6

November’s fire in the northern California town of Paradise was the deadliest in U.S. in a century, killing 85 people and burning 14,000 homes to the ground.  

In 2017 a fire ripped through Santa Rosa in the San Francisco Bay Area killing 22 people and destroying more than 5,000  structures. 

Pimlott says the vicious fires in California have continued to defy prediction since 2013. 

Each year the fires have gotten worse and more intense – driven by dry forests and climate change. 

While the future of California’s construction laws remains up in the air, the state is doing more to eliminate brush and dead trees that serve as fuels for wildfires. 

The state will also add seven large firefighting aircrafts and replace a dozen old helicopters. 

Firefighters will also be provided with counseling and enough vacation time for medical check-ups to cope with the mental and physical stress of fire season.     

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