Landowners who failed to pay for wildfire risk reduction to see fees for clearing brush
Gavin Nguyen
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) – Hundreds of property owners in unincorporated portions of Riverside County will see fines attached to their tax bills for failing to pay for brush mitigation.
The Riverside County Fire Department requested the Board of Supervisors to sign off on cost recovery for the department’s Fire Hazard Reduction Program.
The program aims to reduce the risk of wildfires by trimming and managing overgrown brush. The department contracted inspectors to clear weeds and other wildfire fuels from parcels of land that were largely vacant or offset from a main property.
“At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is build that defensible space. We know that we have a county that’s an arid climate, has a lot of risk of wildland fires,” said Riverside County Fire Department Chief Deputy Geoffrey Pemberton.
Pemberton broke down the process the department takes to maintain that defensible space. First, the department will inspect land parcels in high fire risk areas.
“When the adjacent parcels that are unimproved do not abate the weeds that could threaten their neighbors, we go out and do inspections, physical, on-site inspections, validate that there is a fire hazard or a threat to life or property, we send a mailer to the address on file with the landowner based upon the tax records. We give those property owners 30 days to abate it.”
If 30 days pass without action from the landowner, or the land does not pass a second inspection, the department will ask contractors to clear the brush. After verifying the work has been completed, the contractors bill the fire department – and the fire department will ask the landowners for that money back.
If landowners fail to pay the department back, the department asks the county to recover the cost by billing them during the following tax year. That’s what happened at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, when the cost recovery passed in a 5-0 vote without comment. No landowners were present for comment at the meeting.
In a statement to News Channel 3, Supervisor Perez said:
“Riverside County Fire Department’s Fire Hazard Reduction Program is one of the proactive measures we use as a county to prevent devastating wildfires.
“Where overgrown vegetation poses significant wildland fire risks, our Fire Department encourages property owners to clear hazardous vegetation voluntarily, avoiding the need for liens. When necessary, the Fire Department takes swift action to mitigate and eliminate fire threats, particularly before the fire season begins and then throughout.
“In our desert communities, green waste piles and illegal dumping pose significant fire risks. To address this, we included funding in the county budget for additional Fire Marshal staff to work on preventing these vegetation hazards and continuing the efforts to encourage owners to clean up their properties before they turn into dangerous fires.”
According to fire officials, the owners, whose properties are located in unincorporated communities countywide, are delinquent and altogether owe a total of $295,356.
Communities like Cabazon and Banning were included in the crackdown, as well as unincorporated portions of Corona, Hemet, Riverside, and more.
Cabazon alone had over 40 land parcels with new liens placed on them as a result of the weed abatement program.
Residents of the unincorporated community expressed their support of the fire department and county supervisors’ initiative. Manny Perez, a resident of Cabazon, said, “There’s no amount of money that you can put to save a life. If $500 is adequate, even $1,000 is adequate to save the potential for a family, a child, a person.”