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The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has withdrawn its Zone Zero emergency regulation package from the California Office of Administrative Law (OAL). The Board later said the withdrawal is procedural and that it's working through technical edits and questions with the OAL. The Board expects to make changes and resubmit the regulations. But no one has shared a public timetable for when.

On this week's Rebuild:LA, in the wake of the unexpected news, host Cameron Barrett talks to the Glendale Fire Chief and the Chair of the LAFD Fire Code Revision Subcommittee about what this means for the future of Zone Zero. Plus, we check in with MySafe:LA field team members who explain what to expect when you sign up for a free home hardening and defensible space assessment.

Resources:

• MySafe:LA Free Home Assessment
• Glendale Fire Department
• LAFD Fire Code Advisory Committee

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The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has withdrawn its Zone Zero emergency regulation package from the California Office of Administrative Law (OAL). The Board later said the withdrawal is procedural and that it's working through technical edits and questions with the OAL. The Board expects to make changes and resubmit the regulations. But no one has shared a public timetable for when.

On this week's Rebuild:LA, in the wake of the unexpected news, host Cameron Barrett talks to the Glendale Fire Chief and the Chair of the LAFD Fire Code Revision Subcommittee about what this means for the future of Zone Zero. Plus, we check in with MySafe:LA field team members who explain what to expect when you sign up for a free home hardening and defensible space assessment.

Resources:

• MySafe:LA Free Home Assessment
• Glendale Fire Department
• LAFD Fire Code Advisory Committee

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Last week, state legislators wrapped up their session and sent several bills to Governor Gavin Newsom's desk, all aimed at strengthening wildfire resilience and recovery.

This week, host Cameron Barrett brings you a legislative roundup of the bills that could help LA recover and speaks with Senator Ben Allen. Allen's district includes Pacific Palisades, and one of the bills he authored this session, SB894, is currently awaiting the governor's signature. He tells us about the bill, which is designed to provide low-cost loans to California residents trying to retrofit their homes in preparation for the new Zone Zero policies.

Resources:

• Senator Ben Allen, SD24
• SB894
• AB1642
• AB1795
• AB2700
• SB1301

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WE'RE BACK! All-new season. All-new podcast. Now with video!

And we're kicking off the new season and the new Rebuild:LA with one of our most controversial topics - Zone Zero.

On August 19th of this year, the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection - the policy-making body of CAL FIRE - passed its final draft of Zone Zero.  There are still procedural hoops to jump through, but the defensible space policy is already concerning homeowners in the High and Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones. Detractors say the policy is unenforceable and unaffordable. The Board of Forestry says it's necessary to lower fire risks in a state already devastated by wildfires.

This week we bring you the Board's argument for the new Zone Zero policy, the president of the Mandeville Canyon Association's passionate argument against the policy, and the Executive Officer of MySafe:LA's advice on how to move forward.

Resources:

• Board of Forestry and Fire Protection's Zone Zero Policy
• Board of Forestry and Fire Protection
• Mandeville Canyon Association
• Wildfire:LA

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In our last Encore Episode before the premiere of Season 5, we revisit the Future Organization and its founder, Aimery Thomas. After the Eaton Fire, Thomas and his partner, Leila Towry, looked around their destroyed Altadena neighborhood and realized their training as researchers of vulnerable populations uniquely positioned them to help their community. They decided to survey 1,228 neighbors to learn what happened during the fire, how they survived it, and what they were doing to rebuild. Their report, titled ARISE (Altadena Resident Impact Survey and Evaluation), was released in 2025, and we spoke to Thomas not long after, in September of last year. In their report, still available online, they outline the disappointment, confusion, anger, and sadness many Altadenans felt in the aftermath of the fire, and their hopes as they navigated their way back home.

Resources:

• The Future Organization
• The ARISE Study
• LA County Government
• Altadena Town Council

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Our latest Encore Episode brings you back to just a few weeks after the Palisades Fire and introduces you to someone who fought that fire…from the skies. Linnea Edmeier is the Public Information Officer for CAL FIRE’s Aviation Unit. She responded to the Palisades Fire hours after it broke out, deploying to Catalina Island, where she and CAL FIRE pilots set up a base of operations to drop water and fire retardant from tankers and helicopters. Turns out, hurricane-force winds don’t mix well with aircraft flying low over dangerous terrain that happens to be on fire. Despite the dangerous conditions, Edmeier and her unit battled for days.

Her firsthand account of those conditions and a life-threatening drone strike features in Episode 3 that originally aired back on February 4, 2025.

Resources:

• CAL FIRE Aviation
• LAFD Air Ops
• Drone Laws in Los Angeles
• 2025 California Wildfires

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We’re busy retooling our podcast, and the new Rebuild:LA will premiere September 1st! In the meantime, another ENCORE EPISODE comes your way. Episode 50 first aired on November 11, 2025, and was the first of a two-part episode featuring Eaton Fire survivors Angela Giachetti and Andrew King. Their evacuation stories are as frightening as they are frustrating. Neither King nor Giachetti ever received an official evacuation order, even though they waited hours for one, and both of them finally decided to leave their Altadena neighborhood as flames consumed familiar landmarks and the lives they once lived. Giachetti and King met months later when they were hired by the newly formed Department of Angels, a non-profit working to help LA's recovery. The group's latest quarterly report, released just last month, shows that the vast majority of survivors in Altadena, Pacific Palisades, and Malibu are still not home, 18 months after the fires.

So sit back and listen (or re-listen!) to Episode 50, about two fire survivors and their work to rebuild LA.

Resources:

• Eaton Fire
• Department of Angels
• Community Voices: LA Fire Recovery Report
• California Community Foundation

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We’re busy retooling our podcast and the new Rebuild:LA will premiere September 1st! In the meantime, another ENCORE EPISODE comes your way. Episode 59 originally aired on January 5, 2026, and marked the first anniversary of the Palisades and Eaton Fires. Host Cameron Barrett and the MySafe:LA production team recorded the episode at an art exhibit marking the anniversary, at the City Market Social House in Downtown Los Angeles. The exhibit presented fire survivors through an immersive experience featuring sound, still photography, film, and original artwork. It was only open for a few days in early January, but thousands of people visited, bringing donated food, financial aid, and volunteer hours. A dozen organizations attended the opening, and MySafe:LA was on hand to talk to them, record their reports from the fireground, and hear their hopes for the future of Los Angeles. Listen (or re-listen!) to this heartbreaking, yet hopeful tribute to the survivors of the Altadena and Palisades Fires.

Resources:

• With Us
• Department of Angels
• Extreme Weather Survivors
• Project:Camp
• Eaton Fire Survivors Network
• Team Palisades
• Palisades Recovery Coalition

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We’re busy retooling our podcast, and the new Rebuild:LA will premiere September 1st! In the meantime, another ENCORE EPISODE comes your way. Episode 30 originally aired on June 20, 2025. Host Cameron Barrett sat down with friend, colleague, and former Glendale Fire Chief Sylvio Lanzas, who had recently retired to join the private sector as the Chief Operating Officer for a company called M-Fire. They have a spray-on fire retardant made of food-grade materials that Lanzas believes can revolutionize home building in fire-ravaged areas and help prepare high-risk communities for wildfires. The product is called AF31 and is widely used in other parts of the world but has had trouble gaining traction in the United States. Why? Well, that’s a story you have to hear to believe. So listen…or re-listen to episode 30, all about M-Fire’s AF31.

Resources:

• M-Fire Technologies
• M-Fire Suppression
• Questions about AF31? Email [email protected]

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Do you remember what it was like in those first few weeks after the Palisades and Eaton Fires? The raw emotions? The confusion? The rumors?!

We started Rebuild:LA in those dark days after the January 2025 Firestorms, and we've been trying to break through the noise ever since.

Welcome to another Encore Episode as we retool our podcast for the fifth season, which premieres on September first! This week, we go all the way back to those weeks right after the fires, and bring you our very first episode. We wanted to bring facts to the post-fire conversation. We wanted to find the subject matter experts, the scientists, the firefighters, the elected officials, the non-profit and community leaders who could help make sense of our post-fire world.

In our very first episode, we also had another objective in mind. We wanted to give people hope. We wanted to tell them that they were not powerless. They could protect themselves, their families, and their homes from wildfires. There were steps they could take. So we brought on MySafe:LA’s Executive Officer, David Barrett, to outline three steps homeowners could take. And then we offered to help with all three steps...for free.

That’s MySafe:LA’s job. It was before the fires. And it remains our job today. Help people prepare for wildfires and build community resilience. So let’s go back in time to those raw days right after the fires, and hear words of hope from MySafe:LA’s David Barrett.

Resources:

• For free home wildfire inspections: 213-634-0100

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