Assessment of Jurisdictional Wildland Firefighting Liability: Assessment and Education for Electeds

Multiple cities have incorporated wildland areas and WUI into their Spheres of Influence (SOI), creating liability for cities for wildland firefighting and suppression costs including all response by cooperating agencies (such as air support). The state constitution assigns financial responsibility for wildfire suppression to the state on SRA lands, but for city and unincorporated county lands that are not within the SRA, local jurisdictions bear the entire burden of wildfire suppression and prevention costs (including high-cost actions like retardant drops and hand crew deployment). Incorporated land is excluded from the SRA (and from the state covering those costs) by statute, so even if they are wildland and high wildfire risk areas, the state cannot pay wildfire suppression and prevention costs for those lands. Cities may be motivated to include such areas in their SOI's and then incorporate those areas to control development therein and collect tax revenue. Fire agency personnel believe that cities are unaware of their potentially catastrophic seven-figure financial liabilities in the event of a large incident within their jurisdictions. The need is to identify all such areas, assess the costs and benefits of their inclusion in city SOIs, and present the results to city elected leaders, managers, legal counsel, finance officers and other agencies including SBCAG and LAFCO. It is critical that LAFCO is fully aware of these costs and liabilities in their review when considering annexations and SOI expansion requests. The State GAO has an excellent but dated analysis and educational document that can help educate electeds and managers.

Status: Recommended

Cost: Medium

Partners:

Permitting: None

Funding Sources:

Additional Notes: This is an educational tool that LAFCO needs to weigh the cost of wildfire suppression when considering a SOI, or more importantly, an annexation that involves any land with inherent fire severity. An example of liability risk is in the SB City area near La Cumbre Jr High where the city's Sphere of Influence (SOI) reaches up to south of highway 192. The City is also liable for some areas north of 192 and up towards Highway 154 across the Forest Service boundary to Mission Canyon. These areas provide examples of why it is critical that City decisionmakers are educated to understand the financial liability risk of this and other areas outside of the SRA. In urban development zones, the cost of some aspects of fire fighting are free under the CA Master Mutual Aid System, but that only applies to engines, structure protection, and fire trucks. It does not apply to aircraft, crews, bulldozers and other costs related to perimeter control. Thus, it is imperative that a city understands the implications of its own cost liability for wildlands within its jurisdiction. If a fire occurs in one of these areas, they must request that the county or other jurisdictions cover those costs. For example, the County of Santa Barbara covered the costs for the 2021 Loma Fire hand crew, but they were not reimbursed. Conversely, if that land was part of an SRA. the costs would have been covered by the State, including call back staffing (covering the extra costs of staffing for the stations that send crews).