New statewide wildfire safety rules may mean hundreds more Berkeley Hills residents will have to clear ember-proof barriers around their homes within the next three years. The rules, which would apply in certain areas just west of Grizzly Peak Boulevard, are similar to regulations city officials adopted last year for homes along the road and east of it, but not as stringent.
As a result, Berkeley Fire Department inspectors could end up enforcing two separate sets of regulations in the hills, or city leaders could extend the stricter local mandates to homes west of Grizzly Peak Boulevard — something fire officials indicated last year that they want to do eventually, though there are no current proposals to take that step.
The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection voted for the new regulations in August, and they are pending before the state’s Office of Administrative Law. If ratified they will apply anywhere in California that Cal Fire has designated a “very high fire hazard severity zone,” which includes about 450 acres in the northeast corner of Berkeley…