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III. Introduction
Fire Safe planning is well developed in the County. The County Planning
Department routinely requires a Fire Safe Plan for Tentative Maps and County Building Permits
Conditions of Approval. Over 150 such plans have been developed and approved. California Public
Resource Code #4291 which requires clearance of flammable vegetation from around structures has
been enforced in some, but unfortunately not all jurisdictions for over 20 years. Public Resource
Code #4290 and Title 14 Regulations for Fire Prevention and for the provisions of Fire Support
Infrastructure in State Responsibility Areas (SRA) have been enforced since 1993. County
Amendments to the SRA Fire Safe Regulations were adopted in 1986 and revised in 1988, 1989, and
1990. A proposal to provide additional fire prevention information by revisions to the County
of El Dorado Design and Improvement Standards Manual has been funded by the El Dorado County
Prevention Officers Association and the EDCFSC.
The California Uniform Building and Uniform Fire Codes govern most aspects
of fire safety relating to structures of all types and uses of all kinds and require actions
to reduce the loss of life and property. There are no similar Fire Safe Requirements that
integrate such codes with the threat of multiple exposures to fire in wildland fire situations.
Community Fire Safe Planning must recognize the threats which accompany the urban- wild land
intermix as wildfires may start in either and threaten both.
The El Dorado County Fire Safe Council, organized in 2001, has been
successful in bringing a Countywide Residential Chipping Program and a Senior and Disabled
Assistance Program to residents of the county. Over a thousand home owners have taken
advantage of the Chipper Program since the pilot in 2003 and in the first six months of full
time operations, over 120 Senior and Disabled residents have benefited from this EDCFSC
assistance program. It is anticipated, as resources become available, that both of these
programs will expand to meet the needs of all El Dorado County residents. The EDCFSC has
been instrumental in obtaining funding for various fuels management projects throughout the
western slope of El Dorado County, as shown in the following:
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Residential Chipping Program -
helping residents help themselves.
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Independence Fuel Break, Pollock Pines, CA
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Mastication Treatment for Fuel Break
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