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The California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention released its first updated Fire Zone Zone Map for Los Angeles County in over a decade on Monday, adding more than 440,000 acres to the county’s hazard zone.
This release includes everything in Southern California and marks the end of the agency’s two-month statewide deployment – sets a clock of about five months to allow LA cities and counties to take public input, coordinate and begin tightening fire safety regulations within the New Zone.
The new Cal Fire Map is for areas where local fire stations, such as the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Los Angeles County Fire Department, are responsible for responding to the flames. Previously, Cal Fire only mapped the highest severity rating “very high” in these local responsibility areas. The new map also includes the “Medium” and “High” zones for Cal Fire.
Cal Fire recently updated all three zones in the region in September 2023 where the state responds to fires. But in 2011, when the agency last updated a map of the area where local fire departments are responsible.
In LA City, the “very high” zone crop area increased by 7%. The addition of new “moderate” and “high” zones has increased the total lyrics to the fire severity hazard zone by 24%.
However, in non-incorporated areas of LA County, which rely on the LACFD, the area of the “very high” zone exceeded the triple. Many unincorporated areas, including the suburbs of the Santa Clarita and Palmdale regions, and the suburbs of the Palmdale region near Whittier, are found in wild urban areas.
“Today’s release of the updated Hazard Assessment Map from Cal Fire… highlights the ongoing wildfire crisis that California is experiencing,” Rep. George Whiteside (D-Agua-dulce) said in a statement. “We must act quickly and on a large scale to protect our communities and ensure that the insurance market works for everyone.”
Once the rollout is complete, the whole of California has a “very high” hazard zone acres than ever before. Cal Fire mapped a total of 6.8 million acres to the hazard zones in the local responsible area. The “very high” zone has increased 35% from 860,000 acres to nearly 1.2 million acres. Meanwhile, 1.2 million and 4.5 million acres have been placed in new “high” and “medium” zones, respectively.
Hazard Severity Zone Maps are referenced in more than 50 sections of California law. They require homeowners in “high” and “very high” hazard zones to follow fire safe building standards for new construction, including the installation of multi-pane windows that are unlikely to break in extreme heat, covering vents and other openings to prevent the remnants from entering the home. Homeowners in “very high” zones should maintain defensible space around the facility and disclose “very high” status when they put their homes up for sale
The council is also calling for local governments in enhanced severity zones to review evacuation routes on a daily basis and to explain the potential peak stresses of water supply during disasters. According to the law, local governments must also place important public facilities such as hospitals and emergency command centers “when possible” and “when possible.”
Cal Fire was originally scheduled to release the map in mid-January. However, that month, La Firestorm was forced to delay its agency as it moved important scientific resources to support fire and relief efforts.
On the new map, Pallisad and Malibu in the Pacific remain blanketed under the red “very high” zone, like the old map of Cal Fire in 2011.
Altadena
Proposal of fire hazard severity zones in local responsibility areas
Jet propulsion
Laboratory
Artcenter
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2011 “Very expensive”
Hazard Severity Zone
Jet propulsion
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Artcenter
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2011 “Very expensive”
Hazard severity
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California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention
Sean Green Los Angeles Times
Analysis by the Times found that only 21% of the properties within the boundary of the Eton fire are designated as “very high” fire risk. However, an independent assessment by Public-Benefit Company First Street identified 94% as having a risk of “severe” or “extreme” wildfires. That means you could have experienced at least one wildfire in your 30-year window.
David Sapsis, research manager at Cal Fire, who oversees agency mapping efforts, acknowledged that the model Cal Fire uses to create the maps cannot fully predict the dynamic spread of wildfires into urban areas. Instead, Cal Fire’s model explains the types of vegetation, topology, climate and weather in wild areas, and calculates the possibility of a region burning and the intensity of the flame. From this we calculate how much the flames will spread to urban areas.
The team also deliberately chose to rule out what is called “Outlier” events, like the 2017 Tubbs Fire. Another outlier event: like the fire of the Tubus, driven by unrelenting, powerful winds, the Eton Fire has blown deep flames into the populated areas.
First Street approaches a bit differently. The company creates a virtual representation of California, including both the state’s urban vegetation and human infrastructure, simulating how fires spread, including areas like Altadena. If the Cal Fire model is a snapshot of the way fire works, First Street is a movie.
Sapsis hopes to use new approaches like First Street in the future. For 2025 maps, Cal Fire has slightly changed its model, including the use of more modern climate and extreme weather data. We also used a new model to estimate how much fires could be caused in the ignition site.
Other changes in the real world – CAL firemap changes have also occurred, including new housing developments that have changed the classification of the region from wildlands to urban areas.
In the latest release, including all of Southern California, including San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties, the cities in the Hesperia and Yurupa Valley had the most significant increase in acre zones, with the average city averages up over 35 and 45 times, respectively. Jurupa Valley has expanded its “very high” zone from 226 acres to 6,195. Hesperia’s increased from 715 to 15,359.
Cities in Chino Hills, Lancaster and Santa Clarita saw a significant increase in “very high” zones. In all three cities, the zone has grown over 13,000 acres.
The number of acres zoned “very high” in San Diego fell by nearly 30%. However, the total area of the hazard zones still increased slightly thanks to the new “medium” and “high” zones.
A handful of cities in the state have reduced total zone area, including Rancho Palos Verdes in LA County and Oakland in the Bay Area.
“Before these maps are produced, I’ll be very honest with you. I thought that the very high fire severity zone really would reach deep and deep into Altadena. “I looked at what happened to Cal Fire and there’s a reason why the map wasn’t changed, and what they said, specifically, their model is for wild fire modeling. It’s not used and should not be used [urban] Large fire modeling. ”
Cal Fire has so far refused to comment on what has driven change in certain counties and cities.
Currently, local jurisdictions have 120 days of accepting public input on maps and issuing official ordinances that implement them using Cal Fire. Normally, the ordinance will take effect approximately 30 days after it is issued. At that point, the enhanced fire safety regulations apply to the New Zone.
Local jurisdictions like LA City and counties are allowed to increase the severity of the zone and add acres to the zone. However, it cannot reduce the severity of the zone or remove acres.
These maps are “an important tool for identifying areas with high fire hazards and strengthening fire safety policies across the community,” said county supervisor Kathryn Berger. “For those looking to rebuild after the Eton fire, we would like to emphasize that these maps provide important information to guide your reconstruction efforts. We will reflect the latest fire hazard assessment and ensure that our homes and infrastructure are rebuilt with safety and resilience in mind.”
Fire safety advocates attribute the continued upward trend in acre zones to many factors that result from fire-prone regions, ecosystem changes and climate change development.
“Yes, climate change obviously has absolutely had an impact on the severity of our wildfires and where they were happening, but before it had climate impacts, there was a land use decision,” said Howard Penn, a California nonprofit. “We’ve spread across the Wildlands for over the last 75 years and have little to consider the impact.”
This is a developing story.
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