Cal Fire Unveils New Fire-Hazard Maps for Los Angeles, Expanding High-Risk Zones

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has unveiled new fire-hazard severity-zone maps for Los Angeles County, marking the first update in over a decade. This latest version has expanded the county’s hazard zones by more than 440,000 acres, including a notable 30% rise in areas now classified under the highest severity rating. This release signals the culmination of the agency’s two-month, state-wide initiative which now invites a period of around five months for public input. During this time, both the city and county of L.A. will review feedback, make necessary adjustments, and start implementing stricter fire safety regulations within the newly designated zones.

The fresh maps released by Cal Fire identify areas of local fire response, such as those handled by the Los Angeles Fire Department and Los Angeles County Fire Department. Previously, only zones under the top tier of severity, known as ‘very high,’ were charted for these local areas by Cal Fire. The current maps now also delineate areas as ‘moderate’ and ‘high’ severity zones. The ‘local responsibility areas’ are thus proposed with three levels of risk: Moderate, High, and Very High. While Cal Fire has recently updated these three zone classifications statewide for state-responded areas as of September 2023, the last update for local fire department zones was in 2011.

In Los Angeles, the land categorized as ‘very high’ risk expanded by 7%. Including the new ‘moderate’ and ‘high’ risk zones has resulted in an overall 24% increase in the total fire severity hazard area. Unincorporated regions of L.A. County, which depend on the LACFD, have seen their highest severity risk areas over three times larger. With the state-wide rollout now complete, California possesses more acreage marked in the ‘very high’ hazard zone than ever recorded before, with 6.8 million acres mapped into local responsibility area hazard zones.

These hazard severity zone maps are referenced in over 50 sections of California law, necessitating that homeowners in ‘high’ and ‘very high’ hazard areas adhere to fire-safe building codes for new constructions. Local authorities now have 120 days to gather public feedback on the maps and collaborate with Cal Fire to propose an official ordinance to formally adopt these maps.