AB 2473

Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, requires the Office of Emergency Services and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to jointly establish and lead the Wildfire Forecast and Threat Intelligence Integration Center, which serves as the state’s central organizing hub for, among other things, wildfire forecasting. Existing law requires the center to, among other things, provide specified intelligence and guidelines about wildfire threats to government agencies and designated alerting authorities. Existing law authorizes the Governor to proclaim a state of emergency, and local officials and local governments to proclaim a local emergency, when specified conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist, and authorizes the Governor or the appropriate local government to exercise certain powers in response to that emergency. This bill would require the Wildfire Forecast and Threat Intelligence Integration Center to proactively recommend, based on extreme, life-threatening fire weather forecasts, whether a state of emergency or local emergency should be proclaimed, as specified.