In recent years, climate change and ground water debts have made California more susceptible to wildfires than ever. According to the state’s statistics, there were over 9,900 incidents in 2020 that burned a total of 4.26 million acres and damaged or destroyed well over 10,000 homes and structures. Because much of California is densely populated, these fires naturally caused widespread power outages as well as mandatory and suggested evacuations. At least 33 people died last year as a result of one or more of these factors.
What Do Wildfires Have to do With Garage Doors?
When you’re evacuating your home- grabbing important items and stuffing clothes and essentials into your bags before hurrying away from danger- you’re likely not focused on factoring in how to get your car out of the garage. But since many automatic opening garage doors operate on electricity, if your power is out and you can’t manage to open the door manually, what are you going to do? This is why, in 2018, California passed SB-969, which requires any and all new garage door sales and installations to include a battery backup for the automatic opener, to ensure that when people needed to get away quickly, they would have no trouble getting their cars out of their garages.
If you need your garage door replaced, or will in the near future, it’s a good idea to do it now, before the fire season starts again. And if you have a perfectly fine garage door in working order, replacing your current automatic opener with one that satisfies SB-969’s requirements is a smart move that might end up being the thing that keeps your family safe in the case of an evacuation.