State Fire Marshal: home hardening certification program.

Bennett’s proposal would place the State Fire Marshal at the center of a new home hardening certification program designed to identify measures that can be implemented during renovations or property improvements to align existing buildings with state wildfire-resilience standards for wildland-urban interface areas. The core change centers on creating a formal program to certify home hardening practices, with the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) coordinating related training and product guidance and tapping a dedicated funding stream to develop these capabilities, subject to legislative appropriation.

Key provisions expand OSFM’s existing Wildland-Urban Interface activities. The proposal requires online training that builds on the state regulatory framework for wildfire safety and explicitly incorporates emergency power backup requirements, including battery backup considerations for automatic garage door openers. It also broadens the products listing to cover exterior siding and sheathing, windows and doors, vents, decking, treated and ignition-resistant materials, roofing, and emergency battery backup for garage door openers. A deadline of January 1, 2027 is set for the Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee to develop a home hardening certification program, which would identify measures usable in renovations or property improvements and align existing stock with applicable building standards. Funding for these activities would come from the Building Standards Administration Special Revolving Fund, but only if the Legislature appropriates it. A parallel version of the amendments would also contemplate a contractor-certification pathway for firms performing defensible space and other wildfire-resilience work once they complete the OSFM training or an equivalent program.

Governance and implementation are further defined through expanded committee duties under the Public Resources Code. The State Fire Marshal’s Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee would serve as a public forum to solicit input, advise the Deputy Director of Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation, and develop the home hardening certification program. Its membership includes senior leaders from several state agencies and a broad slate of industry and local-government stakeholders, and it is required to meet monthly with members serving without compensation but eligible for expense reimbursement; the committee’s chair would be the State Fire Marshal. An administrative provision conditions the operative effect of the contractor-certification language on the enactment and sequencing of a companion Senate measure, creating a timetable-based linkage that determines whether certain provisions become effective.

Together, the changes establish a structured framework to align retrofit or renovation work in wildfire-prone areas with updated building standards, supported by formal training, product guidance, and a consultative governance process. The approach relies on state-level standards coordination, ongoing stakeholder engagement, and a potential pathway to credentialing for contractors, all funded only if future budgets authorize the related expenditures and subject to the interplay with a companion measure and timing requirements.