00:00From the 1930s until 2002, there were very few large forest fires, and nothing we would
00:07now call a megafire, but every year without fire or mechanical clearing only increases
00:13the fuel load.
00:15The forests and the new communities in them were becoming a ticking time bomb.
00:19In 2018, that bomb went off.
00:29The deadliest fire in California's history hit the rural town of Paradise, California.
00:34Eighty-six people perished, and the town was destroyed.
00:38It was a wake-up call for everyone living in fire-prone areas.
00:42The government was forced to respond.
00:45This was a new kind of emergency.
00:47It required much faster action than deliberately slow laws like NEPA and the Endangered Species
00:52Act could accommodate.
00:55The question was, we can't wait for processes to slow us down, and how do we treat the preventative
01:03action like an emergency and with the pace of an emergency?
01:08So Governor Newsom put out emergency declarations that enabled us to change our environmental
01:14practices.
01:15He waived CEQA, the environmental law, and also directed Cal Fire to go into emergency
01:21operation mode to execute emergency fuel breaks throughout the state.
01:26This was not an academic exercise, but a crucial requirement for communities.
01:32Paradise was only the beginning.
01:34Every year since, the fires have gotten bigger and more destructive.
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