In today's newscast:
Fire weather
California’s two biggest wildfires are the Timber and Plaskett fires in Big Sur. Together they have burned more than 55,000 acres.
Plaskett Fire meteorologist Terry Lebo says the current weather has most of the traits of fire weather.
"In this part of the country, you can get the hot, you can get the dry, you got the really steep terrain. So you got a lot of the factors that'll give you the critical fire weather," he said. "But if we don't have the wind, that's the saving grace because that's not really going to push things around. So, although it's going to be hot and it's going to be dry, we're going to have the lack of wind. That's the good news."
Lebo spoke at a community meeting on Tuesday.
The Plaskett Fire started August 26. The Timber Fire has been burning for a month.
Bills aim to help with wildfire recovery
Lawmakers have sent two bills to Gov. Gavin Newsom that aim to improve the recovery process after a wildfire.
One of these bills would create first-in-the-nation standards for smoke damage testing and remediation.
After the LA County fires, many homes were damaged but didn’t burn down. But their owners are still waiting to move back in 21 months later because they’ve been negotiating with their insurance companies about who’s going to pay for testing and cleanup. Many of the survivors don’t want to move back into their homes without knowing whether it’s safe to do so.
If these bills become law, they would specify what kind of toxic materials and chemicals to test for. That way, insurance companies would know what they should pay for, and it would keep the process from dragging on.
One bill cannot become law without the other.
Even if Newsom signs them, they won’t be an overnight fix. The state would have until 2028 just to create the new smoke damage standards, much less enforce them.
That reporting from our partner CalMatters. Read the full story here.
