Newsom’s New Executive Order to Harden Homes Against Wildfires ‘Too Little, Too Late?’

Fresh off his Wednesday visit in Washington with President Donald Trump and several members of Congress, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a new executive order Thursday aimed at hardening homes located in areas with high wildfire risk by implementing extreme new regulations including not allowing most flammable things allowed within 5 feet of buildings in such areas.

For the past month, Governor Newsom has been scrambling over wildfire issues in California. Initially seen as a positive force shortly after the Palisades and Eaton fires began in early January, Newsom has since received growing criticism and, thanks to his mismanagement of the fires and a lack of wildfire prevention efforts in recent years and during his terms as governor, is now seen as one of the primary sources of blame for the fires. He is currently facing yet another recall primarily because of his wildfire response, with polls showing only Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass being more unpopular over the fires.

However, Newsom has also gone to great lengths in the past few weeks to sign a slew of new orders and regulations aimed at wildfire relief and prevention. The need for federal funding has likewise caused Newsom to somewhat thaw his relationship with President Trump, with Newsom even meeting the President warmly upon his arrival at LAX a few weeks ago and having an unusually cordial meeting with the President in Washington on Wednesday.

Newsom’s political future is now widely seen to be tied with his response to the wildfire, with any more botching of the situation likely meaning an end for any Presidential aspirations in 2028. Not wanting to let up, Newsom announced on Thursday that he will sign a new executive order to harden communities from wind-propelled wildfires that turn into urban firestorms.

According to the order, Newsom will “direct the State Board of Forestry to advance implementation of regulations known as “Zone 0,” which will require an ember-resistant zone within 5 feet of structures located in the highest fire severity zone in the state’s Fire Hazard Severity Zone local maps and the State Responsibility Area, mitigating the risk of conflagration in urban areas like what occurred during the Palisades and Eaton firestorms. In addition, the Governor will direct the CAL FIRE – Office of the State Fire Marshal to release updated Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps, adding 1.4 million new acres of land into the two higher tiers of fire severity, which will update building and local planning requirements for these communities statewide.”

The order will essentially mean that nothing flammable can be put up within 5 feet of a house within these zones in order to remain ember resistant and reduce the chances that a fire will spread.

“The devastation in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena aren’t new lessons,” said Newsom on Thursday. “They are the latest lessons in urban firestorms that have devastated communities across the globe. To meet the needs of increasingly extreme weather, where decades-old buildings weren’t planned and designed for today’s realities, these proposals are part of a bigger state strategy to build wildfire and forest resilience from forest management, to huge investments in firefighting personnel and equipment, community hardening, and adopting state-of-the-art response technologies.”

Other state officials agreed with the new order on Thursday, with many saying that it has been a long time coming.

“These steps will spur proactive actions to defend the most vulnerable homes and eliminate combustible material within five feet of homes to reduce the risk of a home igniting in an ember-driven fire,” added California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot. “These are important steps to limit wildland fires from becoming big urban fires.”

Newsom is set to sign the new order once he returns from Washington later this week. However, detractors have said that this is Newsom’s latest “Too little, too late” measure and that he is now passing all of these new orders to make up for the past several years where he didn’t pass nearly as much wildfire mitigation laws as he should have.

“Hindsight is 20/20, but a lot of voters are having questions over why all of this wasn’t passed before the fires,” said LA County pollster Manny Rodriguez to the Globe on Thursday. “For the Zone 0 thing, many voters also don’t like being told they can’t plant things where they want on their own property. So that’s a lot of people going against him off the bat.

“People are questioning why these weren’t already in place more and more now though. It is good he is finally doing more about it all, but it is also highlighting just how behind the state was. He is facing a recall again for a reason.”