This week, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection announced a new fire hazard severity zone map for dozens of Northern California cities and towns.
The new map will add over 377,000 acres to the zone, with improved fire safety regulations being applied. The release begins a two-month deployment of a new fire hazard map that will culminate in the Southern California map on March 24th.
The update is expected to increase the range of “very high” and “high” hazard zone areas where most of the fire safety regulations apply.
In this first release, all but one of the Cal Fire mapped cities increased acres in the zone. Of the 35 cities included, Truckie and Chico in Butte County saw the biggest increase in crop acreage in two zones where most regulations apply.
The only city the agency mapped was Placerville, El Dorado County, where hazard severity zoning reductions. Previously, most of the city was covered with red “very high” hazard zones. Currently, orange and yellow “high” and “medium” zones have sweeps through parts of town, while the central district is outside the hazard zone.
This release launched a 120-day clock for local jurisdictions to receive public input, formally adopt maps, and begin implementing the advanced fire safety regulations that accompany them.
The new map will focus only on areas where local fire departments are responsible for fire. Cal Fire released an updated map of the region in September 2023 where the state is in charge of controlling the fire. The agency previously mapped only “very high” zones in areas where local governments are responsible, but the state legislature passed the law in 2021. Cal Fire also maps “medium” and “high” zones to these regions.
Cal Fire zoned 72,000 acres “very high” across 16 Northern California County on old maps created between 2008 and 2011. In the updated map, the agency has zoned nearly 600,000 acres either “medium”, “high” or “”; Very high fire hazards in this area.
In addition to expanding the scope of Cal Fire’s mapping projects, the 2021 law includes building standards, from the “very high” zones of the agency to “very high” to “very high” hazard zones. We have expanded many fire safety regulations, including many fire safety regulations. This means that the new map will force more property owners to build or renovate with fire safety in mind.
Cal Fire uses more detailed and up-to-date climate data and calculates hazards based on the extreme windy and dry conditions possible, with fewer fire models between old and newer regions liability maps. It has only been improved to.
PDFs for each city and county are available on the Cal Fire website, along with more information and area data.
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