COUNCILMEMBERS RAMAN AND YAROSLAVSKY INTRODUCE MOTION TO IMPROVE THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES’ RED FLAG WARNING SYSTEM

For Immediate Release: January 14, 2025

Los Angeles, CA – Today, Councilmembers Nithya Raman and Katy Yaroslavsky introduced a motion to improve and expand the City of Los Angeles’ Red Flag warning system to ensure that high fire risk areas are secured adequately in advance of major fires. Currently, the City’s Red Flag restrictions only apply to limiting street parking on specific streets throughout parts of the City’s Very High Fire Severity Zones (VHFHSZs) to ensure emergency vehicle passage. However, the ongoing windstorm and wildfires still ravaging the City of Los Angeles have clearly identified the need for additional mitigation measures to reduce the risk of fires sparking and spreading, and increase access for emergency response vehicles on high wind days. Councilmember Raman and Yaroslavsky’s legislation seeks to formalize, operationalize, and expand the City of Los Angeles’ response to National Weather Service Red Flag Warnings and Particularly Dangerous Situations (PDSs).

Since the start of the windstorm and wildfires on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, Council offices in impacted areas have been left on their own to coordinate hillside park closures in Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones – including in Griffith Park and Franklin Canyon – despite Red Flag Warnings having been enacted. Additionally, construction work in hillside areas and debris hauling continued throughout this time period, while reports were also made of large gatherings in at-risk areas and grilling in public parks in hillside areas. These high risk activities pose both a significant fire risk and risk of impeding the roadways, and highlight the need for more proactive work and coordination to secure high fire risk areas and implement expanded restrictions in advance of major fires.

“Over the course of the last 7 days, we have seen just how high the stakes are when it comes to preventing the rapid spread of wildfire,” said Councilmember Raman, who represents the City’s 4th Council District, including the entirety of Griffith Park. “We need crystal clear protocol and formalized practices for implementing precautionary measures, closures, and restrictions, and coordinated operations for relaying these messages to the public. This is non-negotiable for protecting our communities in high fire risk areas.” 

“This past week, my team was on the ground dealing with issues in our hillsides that made it clear we need better systems in place for emergencies like these.” said Councilwoman Yaroslavsky. “We learned a great deal in real time, and this motion is about using those lessons to create standardized practices that will keep our hillsides and communities safer in the future.”

The legislation instructs the Emergency Management Department, the Los Angeles Fire Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, Department of Recreation and Parks, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the Department of Building and Safety, the Department of Transportation, FilmLA, and any other relevant Office or Department, to report within 30 days on existing and new protocols and measures that the City does and should implement in response to the issuance of Red Flag Warnings and declarations of a Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) by the National Weather Service. Additionally, the City Administrative Officer has been instructed to provide a report on increasing the fine for violation of any existing or future Red Flag Warning ordinances.

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