New fire-hazard severity maps were unveiled for 15 of California's Central Valley counties that added thousands of acres within the scope of local fire departments in the agricultural areas that previously had zero acres zoned as such, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) added more than 1.2 million acres into the zones, over 300,000 of which are in severity zones where many of the state's fire safety regulations apply.
The effort is part of Cal Fire's two-month rollout of new hazard zones for the regions where local city and county fire departments are responsible for responding to blazes, the first such update in more than a decade.
The state Legislature first instructed Cal Fire in 2021 to update its maps and include the new "high" and "moderate" zones, as well as extending many of the fire safety regulations that applied to the "very high" zone into the new "high" zone.
CBS News reported that the new state regulations require defensible space around homes and specific building codes for new construction for things such as roofs, vents and siding.
Cal Fire in 2023 updated its maps for all three levels of hazard zones for areas where the state is responsible for responding to fires, while the new maps just published apply also to areas where local agencies are responsible, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Cal Fire is expected to release the new maps for Southern California this month.
Cal Fire would not say why specific regions were given an increase or decrease in the "very high" zone, but noted that the new maps use updated and more detailed climate and weather data, as well as a new method for estimating how far embers can bring fire into developed areas.
Following the release of the maps, local governments now have five months to accept public input on them, officially adopt the maps and begin applying the new regulations. Local jurisdictions can increase the severity zoning of regions, but they are not permitted to decrease them.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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