In the wake of the 2006 Esperanza fire in which five firefighters perished, EHL has called for a halt to the widespread practice of approving dispersed home sites in high fire hazard zones. Riverside County has formed a task force that will investigate this problem.



Profligate “rural residential sprawl” of estate lots in brush areas is destroying wildlife habitat and creating unacceptable risks to firefighters in Southern California’s inevitable firestorms. The cost of fighting these blazes is passed onto the taxpayer at large rather than to the responsible local government or to the homeowners.

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors acted in response to a letter of Nov. 7, 2006 from EHL that called for density reductions and for clustering of any development into more defensible configurations. In San Diego County, EHL is working to incorporate planning that reduces fire risk into the “2020” General Plan Update.

Following the recent fire in Malibu that destroyed five homes, EHL Executive Director Dan Silver appeared on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor of January 9, 2007, discussing the fiscal aspects of the problem.  For media reports on this initiative, including a letter to the editor published in the Los Angeles Times, see “EHL in the News” below.