Big Bear News – Big Bear Lake – At this week’s Big Bear Fire Authority board meeting, Fire Chief Jeff Willis provided an update on the fire abatement program, which continues to draw criticism from residents who appeared at this week’s meeting, have written letters to the editor, and filled social media threads with complaints ranging from not receiving notices before being cited, to lack of clarity and direction on what the department is asking for to a burdensome and irrational appeal process. It is the first time that the Big Bear Fire Department has headed the program after taking it over from San Bernardino County Land Use Services, and the controversial reaction is something department leadership was braced for when they began inspections this year. Already this year the department has conducted 16,000 inspections of an estimated 28,000 Valley-wide properties and has issued 3,955 notices of violation and 699 abatement citations.
Aside from the top priority of protecting lives and property, the Department’s strict enforcement of the fire abatement ordinance is intended to create a mindset in Big Bear of always maintaining defensible space, in hopes of eventually making homeowners insurance more affordable. Due in part to the increasing severity of wildfires and their threat to properties, three of California’s largest insurers, State Farm, Allstate and Farmers, have limited or altogether stopped writing policies. California has more than 1.2 million homes at risk for extreme wildfire, far more than any other state, according to the Associated Press. The Big Bear Valley, as evidenced by the several close calls over the last decade, is a perfect example of a community located in a Wildland Urban Interface, that is extremely susceptible to fire damage, which in some cases makes it nearly impossible for residents to insure their homes against the threat.
