Dear Friends,

The three guarantees in life right now seem to be death, taxes, and wildfire risk in some parts of California. But that doesn’t have to be the case! This Wildfire Preparedness Week, we’re focusing on risk reduction and steps we can all take to protect our families, properties, and communities.

Home hardening has been an important tool to minimize losses. When integrated with defensible space improvements, a structure’s fire risk decreases by nearly 50 percent. That’s why I’m working to make these renovations more financially accessible to more Californians through low-interest loans.

It’s important to recognize the public responsibility we all share — when our actions can either mitigate or fuel increased damages across our communities. This cannot be a system of individual actions, and we cannot sit back and rely on others to protect our families and communities.

Public-private partnerships between local agencies and nonprofits, insurers, and utilities can also leverage collective resources to invest in more meaningful community-scale efforts that meet the needs of all stakeholders and improve affordability across regions at risk to fire. We also need to invest in fighting arson and in new firefighting technologies.

California has invested significantly in resilience projects since the passage of the $10 billion climate bond I authored in 2024, which includes $1.5 billion for wildfire and forest resilience. A portion of these funds are already being put to use to reduce fire fuel in the Santa Monica Mountains. We additionally committed $4.4 billion to CalFire in FY 2025-26, with another $5.2 billion proposed for the coming fiscal year.

CalFire has many resources to help you prepare for the next disaster. Create a plan and have a Go-Bag ready with any emergency supplies you will need in an evacuation.

If you have any questions on these matters or need any assistance, please feel free to contact our Capitol office at (916) 651-4024 or our district office at (310) 414-8190. You can also follow us on social media or visit our website for additional updates from Sacramento and around the district.

All my best,

Ben Allen
Senator, 24th District