Assembly's Salas sponsors legislation strengthening seismic safety in residential homes

“When an earthquake happens, many people are not able to turn off their natural gas lines before losing everything in a fire,” said Salas. “During an emergency, individuals are focused on trying to keep their families and loved ones safe. This bill will help prevent the outbreak of gas leaks and deadly fires during earthquakes and free up emergency responders to help those in critical need.”

After back-to-back earthquakes occurred in Ridgecrest during July of last year, there were reports of multiple gas line breaks and outbreaks of fires at residential homes as a result of the earthquakes. Similarly, the earthquake that occurred in Napa in 2014, which caused widespread damage in the range of $362 million to $1 billion, with one person killed and 200 injured, there were at least three fires blamed on gas line ruptures. The worst of the fires destroyed four homes and damaged two others. 

A seismic gas shutoff device is a gas valve mechanism that automatically shuts off the flow of gas in response to seismic activity. Some city and county regulations require the installation of seismic gas shutoff devices on the sale of new homes or renovated homes.

For example, the City of Berkeley adopted an ordinance in 2010 requiring the installation of automatic gas shutoff valves under certain conditions. Also, the City of Berkeley operates an Automatic Gas Shutoff Valve Program, where they give out free automatic gas shutoff valves to people in one and two-unit buildings who take steps to prepare for disasters. 

Specifically, AB 1923 would require that the California Building Standards Commission to adopt building standards in the next triennial edition of the California Building Standards Code adopted after January 1, 2021, that would require the installation of a seismic gas shutoff device in any newly constructed, rehabilitated, renovated or reconstructed residential structure.