(a) The office, in collaboration with the department and the board of directors of the FIRESCOPE Program, established pursuant to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 13070) of Part 1, shall develop standards and regulations for any privately contracted private fire prevention resources operating during an active fire incident in California.

(b) (1) In developing standards and regulations, the office shall consider private resource utilization guidelines developed by the FIRESCOPE Program, pursuant to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 13070) of Part 1.

(2) Regulations developed pursuant to subdivision (a) shall include, but not be limited to, the following requirements:

(A) A privately contracted private fire prevention resource shall heed all evacuation warnings and leave the evacuation area when prompted, until the area is reopened or until they have received incident command authorization to reenter or stay in the area.

(B) A privately contracted private fire prevention resource shall check in with incident command before entering an area.

(C) A privately contracted private fire prevention resource shall be equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking device so its liaison at incident command, as described in subparagraph (D), and incident command, can locate the privately contracted private fire prevention resource in the event of an evacuation. The Global Positioning System used by the privately contracted private fire prevention resource shall be compatible with the state’s incident management and situational awareness tracking system.

(D) A privately contracted private fire prevention resource shall have a liaison at incident command that is available to incident command at all times and can contact the privately contracted private fire prevention resource at any time.

(E) (i) A privately contracted private fire prevention resource shall monitor incident command radio frequencies assigned to a particular incident, as permitted under Part 90 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

(ii) The regulations shall include a prohibition on a privately contracted private fire prevention resource from communicating on incident command radio frequencies, without prior approval from incident command.

(F) A privately contracted private fire prevention resource shall, whenever possible, focus on prefire treatment activities and pretreatment of values-at-risk and other nonemergency activities outside of a restricted area to ensure safety, clear command and control, and minimize potential liability issues.

(Added by Stats. 2018, Ch. 636, Sec. 1. (AB 2380) Effective January 1, 2019.)