The Santa Anas Are Coming! Are You Ready?

Tips and Resources to Prepare for Wildfires  

Written by Sheri L. Valley, Esq.

A lot has changed since I first moved to Ventura County. Agriculture, endless hayfields, orchards, and strawberry fields were widespread. When I first enrolled at Santa Rosa Elementary in Camarillo, it only had one classroom that held first through sixth grade. When I was a teenager, it took me only 20 minutes to drive from Camarillo to downtown Ventura to cruise Main Street on a Friday night because there was not much traffic on the 101. Yes, I am aging myself, but the one thing that has remained consistent living in Ventura County is the Santa Ana winds.

For those of you new to the area, the Santa Anas are fierce hot winds that wreak havoc on our outside Halloween, Hanukkah, and Christmas decorations, spoil outside activities, and ruin outside weddings for the gutsy couples who rolled the dice for a gorgeous fall wedding. Santa Anas are most prevalent in October and the winter months with wind gusts upwards of 40 miles per hour.

When I first hear the winds blow, or I catch a red alert for a Santa Ana wind event, my first thought is to run outside and take down my patio umbrellas, take the patio cushions into the garage, and secure anything else that might end up in the neighbor’s yard. (When my kids were little, our kiddie pool once ended up a couple of blocks away during the Santa Anas, racing down the street like a giant blue wheel.)

My second thought is something I don’t like to think about:  Wildfires. With our drought, climate change, and dry hot weather, Santa Anas make the perfect conduit for a small spark from a down power line or a smoldering cigarette to turn into a raging, out of control wildfire.

In the past, wildfires meant more than the fear of losing my home; it also meant the fear of losing my husband.  For 32 years, my husband worked for the Ventura County Fire Department, and we rarely saw him during Santa Ana events and resulting wildfires. When the fires surrounded our neighborhoods, he was never with our children and me.  Instead, he was assigned somewhere else to help others protect their homes.

Reminiscing over those years, I asked my husband to assist me with this article, so I could convey to you inside information about what helped him and his crew protect your home.  In addition, part of fire preparedness is making sure you are properly insured. Below is information to assist you in wildfire preparedness and also tips for understanding your homeowner policy and determining whether your fire policies are up to date and commensurate with rising rebuilding costs. Santa Ana wind preparedness should be more than just taking down your patio umbrellas:  You need to prepare for wildfires to achieve the best outcome for you and your family.

Inside Tips for Preparing Your Home for Wildfires:

Unfortunately, when fires are roaring into your neighborhood, there is not enough time or resources to protect all the homes at once, but the goal is to protect as many houses as possible. Like health care providers setting up a medical triage in a war zone, who prioritize treatment for those with a better chance of survival, Ret. Captain Mike Valley emphasizes the same philosophy: “When we move into an area where homes are intermingled with the wildland and conduct our structure protection triage, we take into account the homes that are fire ready.”  According to Valley, here are a few factors that play into the fire department’s decision-making process when they are forced to triage the order of home protection:

• Are there any debris, patio furniture, sheds, wood piles/firewood, trash, or any other flammable objects up against the home which firefighters would be required to remove?
• Is there a “defensible space” — at least  100 feet from the home —  that will act as the front-line of defense where firefighters can more safely defend your home from the blaze?
• Is flammable vegetation cleared within at least 10 feet of the driveway and are overhanging obstructions removed to slow down the spread of fire?
• If a water supply is present, is it clearly marked for firefighters?
• Is your home visible at night so the fire department does not miss your home?

Additional Residential Safety Check Lists to Improve Your Home’s Chances for Survival:

• Use composition or tile (or other non-combustible) for your roof with capped ends and covered fascia.
• Remove leaves, needles, and branches from the rain gutters, especially after a Santa Ana wind event.
• Make sure all vent openings are screened with 1/8-inch (or smaller) mesh metal screens.
• If you have a chimney, make sure you have approved spark arrestors.
• Make sure the house has non-combustible siding material.
• Make sure your “defensible space” – 100 feet from the home – is regularly maintained all year by removing dead vegetation and brush and making a “reduced fuel zone” with regular grass-mowing and plants and trees that are spaced out from each other.
• For a complete checklist go to: https://vcfd.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/VCFD-WUI-Insert-04-2019-final.pdf

Free Home Assessments and Resources

The Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council (VRFSC) is a non-profit organization created to assist local communities in preparing and reducing the threat of wildfires. They work with “over 30 partners from nonprofit, government, academia and business, including county and city fire departments, the Oxnard College Regional Fire Academy, VC Agricultural Commissioner’s Office, VC Cattleman’s Association, Farm Bureau of VC, VC Parks and the Office of Emergency Services, among others.”

VRFSC offers free “Home Hardening Assessments,” where they will visit homes in locations designated as high-risk for wildfire, assess the property, and provide recommendations about what you can do to better protect your home from wildfires.   They also offer online videos and charts on their website to help you with the process.

Their website also includes several links to additional fire preparedness under the “Resources” tab such as family emergency plans, what to pack in a 72-hour emergency kit, ideas for fire-resistant landscaping, and many more resources. Their website is: https://venturafiresafe.org/home-hardening/

• You can also call your local fire station to set up a free assessment.

Make Sure Your Homeowner Policy Has Adequate Fire Insurance

As we approach the seventh-year anniversary of the Thomas Fire this December, I am reminded of the hundreds of families, including some of my colleagues and firefighter friends, who lost their homes and the difficulties many residents had in rebuilding their homes.  Many homeowners found themselves underinsured, unable to afford the cost to rebuild. This issue is especially prevalent among those who had their homes and policies for decades and did not review their policies or initiate a policy check-up with their insurer. In other scenarios, the insurer significantly underestimated the coverage they would need to rebuild, boasting a cheaper premium.

This year, vow to obtain an insurance checkup with your insurance carrier and make sure your agent is familiar with local codes and changes that affect replacement costs. After Covid-19, current construction costs and inflation have gone through the roof. It is now more important than ever to confirm your policy also reflects these increased building costs. The California Department of Insurance provides a helpful tool for understanding your insurance policies so you can better prepare for your next insurance checkup. This online free pamphlet may be downloaded from their website at: https://www.insurance.ca.gov/flipbook/residential2020/3/#zoom=z

Additionally, take a video of every room in your home and upload it to the cloud or store it at another location to assist in replacement costs. But most importantly, take a video or picture of your most valuable items: pictures hanging on the wall of your loved ones, old photographs, your kids’ drawings, and other memorabilia that are irreplaceable no matter how well you are insured.

Despite your diligence, you may still find yourself needing to file an insurance claim with your insurance company for wildfire losses.  If your insurance company denies your claim or you find yourself in any type of insurance dispute, including bringing a bad faith insurance claim against your carrier, call me to schedule a free consultation. We successfully assisted many victims of the Thomas Fire with their insurance claims. We are also very experienced in insurance litigation and focus on providing a cost-effective pathway through the legal process.

In the interim, hold on to your hat!  The Santa Anas are coming!

Sheri L. Valley is an attorney at Myers, Widders, Gibson, Jones & Feingold, LLP, practicing in the areas of insurance bad faith and construction defect litigation. She can be reached at (805) 644-7188.