By and
Cal Fire on Monday published updated fire maps for 125 cities from the Bay Area north to the Oregon border.
California fire officials released long-awaited maps on Monday showing fire risk in cities across the Bay Area and along the northern coast of California.
The maps, which are still in draft form, will have major implications: They will guide where stricter fire-resistant building and landscape rules apply, and are an update to fire risk maps issued more than a decade ago. For example, the state’s pending ban of plants and other combustible materials within five feet of homes will apply to properties categorized on the new maps (i.e., in local responsibility areas) as having “very high fire severity hazard.” That includes parts of Bay Area cities like Berkeley, Oakland, Tiburon, Mill Valley, Santa Rosa, San Bruno, San Jose and Palo Alto…
The maps are not expected to change how insurance companies weigh fire risk and make policy decisions, according to the California Department of Insurance. The department published a Q&A about the maps that said insurance companies are required to provide “discounts for wildfire safety actions such as community mitigation and home-hardening, which Cal Fire’s maps do not assess.”
“Insurance companies are already using risk analysis tools and models that go beyond Cal Fire’s proposed maps in determining what properties they will underwrite,” the department said….
The maps do not take account of homeowners’ mitigation efforts.
Last year, Cal Fire published new fire hazard maps for the areas of the state it protects, which includes most but not all of non-incorporated California, dubbed “state responsibility areas.” All homes in these areas must adhere to the state’s strictest fire-safe standards for buildings and landscapes, including the state’s upcoming “zone zero” landscape rules that will require homeowners to keep five feet around their homes clear of most plants and other flammable materials like bark mulch.
Cal Fire developed the new draft maps using scientific models that evaluated factors like terrain and vegetation. These new models found the risk of fire had grown in cities and towns, and expanded by 1.4 million acres the California areas designated as either “high” or “very high” fire hazard… (more)