![]() ![]() Much of the area burned in the 2003 Cedar Fire, and his house was destroyed and later rebuilt. San Vicente Reservoir is seen from David Ross’ Lakeside home, June 15, 2021. But if you can possibly do it, it’s definitely worthwhile because it will help save your house,” she said. “It would be helpful if there was a program to help people do it. ![]() She said installing the vents can cost people a lot of money. “It’s one of the thoughts you always have … you know? Will your house be there in a month?” she said about the area’s high fire risk. The county’s abandonment of the vents program last year was news to Palomar Mountain homeowner Yvonne Vaucher, who recently said she had been waiting for the vent reimbursement program to appear since first hearing about it and didn’t know the money had been spent elsewhere.Īs the president of the Palomar Mountain Fire Safe Council, Vaucher helps educate her community, which would have been eligible for the grants, about fire safety. Last November, county fire officials told the supervisors that they wanted to spend the money on other fire prevention strategies, blaming an inability to find someone to run the program and predicting homeowners’ lack of interest in partial reimbursements for vents. (Zoë Meyers/inewsource)īut before any money could be spent, the reimbursement program was abandoned. The vents are widely recommended as a way to guard homes against wildfires because they help protect against burning embers, which can fly up to a mile away or more from their origin and are responsible for the destruction of most homes in a wildfire.ĭavid Ross is shown outside of his Lakeside home, June 15, 2021. “After you’re burned out one time, you’re pretty alert,” he said. “We’re paranoid about fire around here,” said Ross, who is paying for his vent upgrades with money from San Diego Gas & Electric, which provides up to $2,428 to homeowners along the Sunrise Powerlink transmission line who buy and install the vents. Nearby, workers were climbing to the roofline of his rebuilt home to install ember-resistant attic vents designed to prevent airborne cinders from flying inside through ventilation openings. That includes almost 78,000 homes in high to extreme fire hazard areas. In San Diego County, nearly 3 million people - roughly 88% of the population - and around 1 million homes are exposed to some wildfire hazard. Wildfires are getting more frequent and severe due to climate change and fire suppression policies. Fix This: A community reporting project from inewsource. ![]()
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