More parts of Orange County are now designated by the state as areas more prone to wildfires where residents might be required to start taking measures to protect their homes.
New “fire hazard severity zone” maps from Cal Fire released on March 24 are the first update in more than a decade, and they are adding two new layers of designation, moderate and high, near the previous very-high-severity zones that have labeled neighborhoods that are closest to Orange County’s wildlands and hilly areas for years.
But new parts of Orange County have also been added, including neighborhoods in Laguna Hills, Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa. Fire hazard areas in other cities have expanded, including in Fullerton, San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente and others.
Homes in moderate fire hazard severity zones aren’t required to do anything. But for homes in high and very high zones, state law places regulations on construction or renovations and requires notifying home buyers of the risks. Very high fire hazard zone homeowners must also take precautions to limit fire spreading by clearing their land of dead and dying vegetation.
In San Juan Capistrano, the new maps placed a much larger section of the city into the very high hazard zone with the acreage growing from 401 to 2,636, said City Manager Ben Siegel. The new maps also identified 2,658 acres as high-severity and 727 acres as moderate-severity zones.
“The significance of being within a designated area is that specific actions and mitigation measures, such as defensible space and home hardening, are required for new construction projects and major remodels,” Siegel said. “We will be working in partnership with the OCFA to educate the community about what the new fire maps do and do not mean for homeowners.”
Cal Fires develops the maps and incorporates factors such as vegetation, terrain, fire history and local weather to determine areas that are in moderate-, high- or very-high-severity zones. The agency stresses the zones are based on the physical conditions of the area and expected fire behavior over a 30- to 50-year period, and don’t account for mitigation strategies such as weed abatement and home hardening.
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Laguna Hills is one of the communities that were not included in the previous Cal Fire mappings — now about 5% of the northwest part of the city is mapped as a prone area. City Manager Jarad Hildenbrand said there is confusion in the community about what the newly released maps mean for residents, including worries about how they might affect home insurance.
The California Department of Insurance has said a change in designation on the maps for a single homeowner is unlikely to affect their property insurance since companies have long used alternate risk assessment tools when they write and renew policies.
“If you’re in the moderate zone, there are no requirements,” Hildenbrand said. “That could potentially be your next-door neighbor; it’s just how they were mapped. Your immediate next-door neighbor may be in the high severity zone, you might be in the moderate zone, and what we’re hearing from Cal Fire is ‘too bad, so sad we had to draw the line somewhere.’ You’re both on the map, but one property is much more affected.”
Cities have 120 days to adopt the maps that will formalize the new restrictions. While cities can’t take away areas that Cal Fire designated, more can be added.
Orange County Fire Authority officials said 15 cities for which they provide fire services are affected by Cal Fire’s new mapping. While the agency is helping the cities understand what the maps mean for them, each city will determine how restrictive it wants to be.
“Some people think the fire agency does the adoption of the maps, but it’s actually the individual cities,” OCFA Fire Capt. Thanh Nguyen said.
In response to the new mapping and an increased number of higher fire severity zones identified, Nguyen said the agency does not have any immediate plans to staff up or build more fire stations, but it will take advantage of the state Office of Emergency Services’ pre-positioning funding that covers fuel, food and salaries of pre-deployed firefighters in the event of a weather emergency.
Homeowners in very high fire hazard zones are required by law to meet defensible space requirements, meaning they have to regularly clear dead or dying vegetation within 30 feet of any structures on their property, keep their grass trimmed, prune trees and are asked to make their homes more ignition resistant.
Fullerton Fire Marshal Jonathan Fugitt said Fullerton, as with many other cities, has a law where it can declare a nuisance any home that has not had its brush cleared and go in and do the work and later send the bill to the homeowner.
Fullerton’s East Coyote Hills was added this cycle and is largely designated as very high fire hazard severity.
“We were not in shock,” Fugitt said. “This is what we anticipated based on what we’ve seen and what the city has. They are large, open areas of land that obviously pose a fire risk.”
In Lake Forest, the Baker Ranch area is the most notable addition to the recent Cal Fire maps.
Jonathan Volzke, the city’s spokesperson, said city officials are working closely with OCFA to educate residents.
“We recognize that the maps can have a huge impact on our residents, so we do our best to ensure everyone is aware of the new maps,” Volzke said.
It’s been more than a decade since the maps were last updated and state law now requires more than just the highest-risk areas be included.
Homeowners selling their homes in high and very-high severity zones have to provide buyers a disclosure notice and list the features that make the home vulnerable.
In Huntington Beach, the northern section of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve and some surrounding homes are now considered to be in a fire hazard severity zone. The area has dozens of homes in a high fire hazard zone and more in a moderate zone.
Huntington Beach Deputy City Manager and spokesperson Jennifer Carey said the city has met in person with the HOA for the affected neighborhood and is explaining the implications for homeowners.
New state law will soon require homes in the very-high hazard zones to also create an ember-resistant zone within five feet of their home and not have anything nearby that could easily catch fire.
“By designating a very high fire hazard severity zone sort of reinforces the importance of weed abatement and home hardening and making sure that your home is ready in case we have a fire,” Fugitt said, “because the fires that we have in Palisades and Eaton (show) fires can happen anywhere.”
