New Placer County Fire Hazard Map

March 16, 2025 by trudilee

In February of 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order meant to enhance wildfire resiliency measures in California. The State Fire Marshall released an updated Fire Hazard Severity Zone (FHSZ) map, detailing local responsibility areas. These LRAs are areas protected by local fire districts, such as the Placer Fire Department.

Fire Hazard Severity Zones fall into one of the following classifications:

• Moderate
• High
• Very High

Insurance and CAL FIRE MAPS

These new zones are not used by insurance companies to determine coverage. They are like flood zone maps, where areas might have a high probability of being in a hazard zone, but are not specifically prescriptive of impacts. In other words, the zones do not indicate risk.

CAL FIRE’s maps are intended to drive local planning decisions within counties, not insurance decisions. Under Commissioner Lara’s new regulation finalized in October 2022, insurance companies must provide discounts for wildfire safety actions such as community mitigation and home-hardening, which CAL FIRE’s maps do not assess.

In addition, 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. Commissioner Lara’s new wildfire safety regulation will help increase access to insurance by promoting wildfire safety across the state.

Reducing wildfire risks throughout the state is the primary way to make insurance more available and affordable, and their regulation is a major step towards that goal. CAL FIRE’s maps support that goal through improving public education about hazard and the need for safety preparation.

For more information about insurance, please call the Department of Insurance hotline at 800-927-4357 or visit their website at www.insurance.ca.gov.

How Maps Were Created

CAL FIRE created the map of fire hazard zones using factors like fuel load, slope, weather and wind impact on wildfire spread. These areas are classified as Fire Hazard Severity Zones. Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps evaluate “hazard,” not “risk”.

“Hazard” is based on the physical conditions that create a likelihood and expected fire behavior over a 30 to 50-year period without considering mitigation measures such as home hardening, recent wildfire, or fuel reduction efforts.

“Risk” is the potential damage a fire can do to the area under existing conditions, accounting for any modifications such as fuel reduction projects, defensible space, and ignition-resistant building construction.

What This Means

The release of updated FHSZ maps for the LRA identifies additional fire severity zones where:

• Homeowners in very high FHSZ must comply with stringent defensible space and home hardening requirements.
• Property sellers must disclose FHSZ designations during real estate transactions.
• New construction and renovations in designated zones must adhere to wildland-urban interface building codes.

Placer County staff, in close coordination with Placer County Fire, are developing a community engagement program to meet state requirements. They are working towards bringing maps affecting unincorporated areas to the Placer County Board of Supervisors for consideration on or before June 10.

Fire Hazard Severity Zone Map View Finder

The viewer below includes updated fire hazard severity zones for Local Responsibility Areas in California. Enter your address to locate your parcel on Cal Fire's Fire Hazard Severity Zone map.

View Map

Contact me today for more information about available homes for sale in Lake Tahoe, or to list your property.