If enacted, the proposed revision of San Bernardino County’s Fire Hazard Severity Zones could trigger a huge increase in property owners’ fire insurance premiums, which could put students in the Lucerne Valley Unified School District in a perilous situation. Nearly 90 percent of school district families are socio-economically disadvantaged, and a dramatic increase in homeowners fire insurance premiums could push their families over the edge.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection department has taken steps to redraw the zone map to make some areas in Lucerne Valley zoned moderate to “high” or “very high” in severity. Some property owners whose zones changed to higher fire zones have seen their insurance canceled and replaced with fire insurance costing several thousand dollars a year.
That and more is the message of a March 22, 2023 letter signed by LVUSD Superintendent Peter Livingston to Deputy Chief Scott Witt of the Office of the State Fire Marshall, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. All five members of the school board gave Mr. Livingston to write and send the letter during the March 9th meeting of the board.
“It is for all the reasons above that we oppose the changes to the current State Responsibility Area Fire Hazard Severity Zones outlined in the current proposed rulemaking map,” Mr. Livingston’s letter concluded. “We share his (Assemblyman Tom Lackey) assertion the use of ‘extreme fire weather’ predictions in your FHSZ rating methodology is flawed and unnecessarily overrides the validity of actual and reasonably predictable conditions instead. We ask that the proposed FHSZ intensity maps be reconsidered and any modifications to LVUSD and Lucerne Valley property FHSZ’s be done with stakeholder input.”
Mr. Livingston suggested extending the current April 4th deadline another 30 days or so.