03/29/2019
New California Law Aims to Protect Citizens During Wildfires.
On September 1, 2018, California Governor Brown signed SB 969 into law. The legislation requires newly sold or newly installed garage door openers in residential buildings in California to have backup batteries.
California has recently suffered from the most destructive and devastating fire seasons in history. In 2017 47 lives were lost and in 2018 94 people died from wildfires.
Widespread power outages resulted from the fires which made it difficult and sometimes impossible for people to evacuate. With the power off, garage doors openers won’t function, and some deaths were a result of home residents becoming trapped at their homes because they could not open the heavy doors manually.
In 2017 accounts were reported in Northern California of neighbors who stopped while emergency evacuations were underway to help raise garage doors for elderly people who couldn’t get their cars out because the doors were too heavy. Another story was recounted of a mother with a disabled child who had difficulty getting her son into their car because their customized van was in a garage that wouldn’t open.
The law goes into effect July 1, 2019 and applies to all new garage doors and garage door opener installations. Homeowners will also need to install a battery backup opener when a new door is installed or when they replace their old door. After the law goes into effect companies in California cannot sell or install garage door openers that do not have battery backup capabilities.
Let’s hope more people will install these battery backup systems in their existing garages to help keep them safer during emergencies.