All of us are extraordinarily grateful and indebted to the Los Angeles County and Regional Fire Departments for saving our lives and our homes in the Trancas fire this week. As this fire blazed through properties for miles along PCH, it surprised many of us who previously believed these fires were only a risk to residents in rural and high-hazard areas. Fire in the West is a roulette game that can strike any of us at any time.
The Trancas fire underscores why failing to amend the Coastal Commission’s LCP could be a matter of life and death. The LCP’s policies that each resident may have only one access road or driveway with a maximum length of 300 feet, and prohibiting access roads on vacant land, would have placed the lives of residents and firefighters at great risk had they been in effect.
This fire makes it abundantly clear that Malibu’s fire protection regulations must have the force of law and supercede the brush protection policies of the LCP. The Coastal Commission in prioritizing setbacks to sumac, shank and scrub above brush clearance gives us an example of why the Supreme Court recently ordered the Coastal Commission not to engage in writing legislation. The LCP requirement that fire protection be balanced with the need to protect environmental resources should be stricken.
Balancing means compromise, and there should be no compromise when it comes to saving human lives.
Anne Hoffman