Three Recent Wildfire Stories

New Report by ODF on Origin of Beachie Creek Fire

Relevant (I think) to Bob Z. and Joe Reddan’s discussion is this new report on the origins of the Beachie Fire in Oregon, originally brought to my attention by The Hotshot Wakeup.

That finding was almost the opposite of a Portland jury ruling in June 2023 that PacifiCorp was not only liable, but grossly negligent for the fires. Juries have awarded millions to fire victims so far, while others have reached settlements. It’s unclear what the report could mean for fire victims in the Santiam Canyon seeking money to rebuild their lives.

“I can’t think of any situation where a verdict has been given, and then a fire investigation report comes out afterward,” said Gianni Muschetto, chief of law enforcement for Cal-Fire, who said his department’s investigation reports are typically completed in a year at most. “I’ve just never seen that happen before. I don’t know what recourse there would be.”

This raises a great many questions, as you can imagine.  I wonder whether anyone has seen a description of what funding (FEMA, insurance, settlements) go for what things in terms of a wildfire?  Does the party found responsible for the fire pay back FEMA, or the insurance companies?  Does FEMA and insurance pay for different things? If there are two fires that come together, how do they divide the responsibility?

ODF said it had trouble getting info from the FS, is that usual?  Do courts get better information from the FS than investigators?

California Governor Channels HFRA

For those of us who have been around awhile, this sounds kind of familiar.  Note the bullet on forest sector jobs, which I guess are OK again.

Building on nation-leading progress

The 2025 Key Deliverables are the next advancement made by California to increase wildfire response and forest management in the face of a hotter, drier climate. From day 1, Governor Newsom declared California’s firefighters and wildfire resilience as a top priority of his administration. Since taking office, the Governor has committed more resources and investments than ever before to significantly boost wildfire response capabilities while tackling root causes of the wildfire crisis head-on. A full list of California’s progress on wildfire resilience is available here.

Historic investments — Overall, the state has more than doubled investments in wildfire prevention and landscape resilience efforts, providing more than $2.5 billion in wildfire resilience since 2020, with an additional $1.5 billion to be allocated from the 2024 Climate Bond.

On-the-ground progress — More than 2,200 landscape health and fire prevention projects are complete or underway, and from 2021-2023, the state and its partners treated nearly 1.9 million acres, including nearly 730,000 acres in 2023.

Increasing transparency — The Governor’s Task Force launched an Interagency Treatment Dashboard to display completed federal, state, local, and private vegetation management projects across the state. The Dashboard, launched in 2023, provides transparency, tracks progress, facilitates planning, and informs firefighting efforts.

Protecting communities — Since 2019, CAL FIRE has awarded more than $450 million for 450 wildfire prevention projects across the state and conducts Defensible Space Inspections on more than 250,000 homes each year.

Leveraging cutting-edge technology — On top of expanding the world’s largest aerial firefighting fleet, CAL FIRE has doubled its use of drones and the state is utilizing AI-powered tools to spot fires quicker.

Interesting Article About Wildfire Insurance in California

Climate experts, including Wara, have historically called for a federal solution similar to the California Wildfire Fund in order to address the growing threat of wildfire litigation against utilities. But given the current policy climate, that seems unlikely. Even within the state of California, finding the will to increase the wildfire fund surcharges on residents’ electric bills could prove challenging given the current political and economic environment, Wara said.  And utilities oppose paying more into the fund without a commensurate increase in electric rates, as this would eat into shareholder’s returns, he said.

As a result, Wara and other experts are contemplating solutions outside the insurance paradigm. Eric Gray, vice president for government relationship at the Edison Electric Institute, argued that simple reforms like expedited permitting could help utilities implement mitigation strategies like undergrounding and vegetation management in a more timely manner.

Another option, Gray said, is liability reform — eliminating the strict liability paradigm that has emerged to hold utilities responsible for all damages related to fires started by their equipment, regardless of whether their actions are deemed negligent or not. He noted that some states, such as Utah, have already taken measures to limit utility liability, and that conversations surrounding this option are taking place in other states including California.

But Wara believes there’s another side of the risk equation that deserves more attention: the vulnerability of private properties to fire. For all the billions that utilities have spent trying to reduce the odds that they could start a wildfire, total state and federal spending on measures and upgrades that could stop homes from catching fire is limited to a few hundred million, he said.

“We need to be spending something like $3 billion a year as a state on this other stuff,” Wara said. “Not utility ignition avoidance, but reducing the consequence of the ignition. Because in a state with 40 million people, there are going to be ignitions. There is no way to avoid it.”

I agree that there are going to be ignitions, but there could be fewer than there currently are, and they could be detected sooner.