California Controversy: Liability And Prescribed Burns

Across California, property owners and their ‘burn bosses’ are setting fires. When the weather is cool, calm and wet enough, these planned forest fires are designed to clear overgrown vegetation that could accelerate a wildfire in dry months.

They do this knowing they risk financial ruin from a lawsuit if something goes wrong.

Now, Native American tribes, ranchers, timber companies and conservation groups are teaming up to reduce those liability risks in a battle that pits them against the state’s powerful trial lawyers and insurance industries.

New legislation introduced by Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, would buffer state-certified burn bosses — and private property owners on whose land the fires are set — against personal liability lawsuits if a fire escapes and hurts someone or damages property.

They could still be sued, but only if the burn was ‘conducted in a grossly negligent manner.’