Is your community impacted by the new fire hazard maps?

Feb 12, 2025

By Brian Hendershot, Cal Cities Advocate managing editor, and Melissa Sparks-Kranz, legislative affairs lobbyist (environmental quality)

The Office of the State Fire Marshal on Feb. 7 began a phased rollout of the new fire hazard severity designations for local governments. Impacted jurisdictions — including 389 cities — must complete several statutorily required actions within the next few months.

The map uses the best available science to identify certain factors — such as vegetation, slope, terrain, and wind — that drive the spread of wildfires. The map identifies fire hazard, the likelihood of a fire without mitigation measures, not the potential damage to an area (commonly referred to as fire risk).

Identified communities will fall under one of three categories: moderate, high, or very high fire hazard severity. The state has recategorized areas with new severity levels, with over 200 communities receiving a designation that were previously not in a fire hazard severity zone. In a recent executive order, Gov. Gavin Newsom noted that nearly 1.4 million acres were added to the two highest tiers for fire hazard severity.

What does my city need to do?

Cal Cities has released a short primer to help cities understand the fire map approval process and what resources are available to them from the state. Affected cities must do the following:

• Within 30 days of receiving the recommended maps, make the information, including the maps, available for public review and comment.
• Within 120 days of receiving the recommended maps, adopt the recommended map by local ordinance.
• Within 30 days of local ordinance adoption, submit the ordinance and other required documents to the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection.

A local agency may only increase the level of fire hazard severity as identified by the state fire marshal for any area within their jurisdiction. Fire hazard severity cannot be decreased.
The office is releasing the updated map in phases. Cities will need to meet the approval requirements based on when the maps become available for their region. The maps should release for each of the four regions by the following dates: 

• Northern California – Feb. 10
• North Coast and Bay Area – Feb. 24
• Central Valley and Central Coast – March 10
• Southern California and Eastern Sierras – March 24

The state will update its live web map viewer as the updated maps become available.

What is Cal Cities doing?

In recent years, lawmakers have begun paying more attention to fire maps, with an increasing number of laws mandating what cities can and cannot do in higher severity zones. These requirements have mandated preventative measures, such as building code requirements for development and specific home hardening mitigations.

Cal Cities is proactively engaging policymakers on many related issues, including fire insurance, the reintroduction of a Cal Cities-sponsored bill to streamline vegetation management, and the release of these maps. With lawmakers devoting much of their attention to the devastating wildfires that struck Southern California earlier this year, Cal Cities will work with legislators on a slew of other wildfire mitigation, preparedness, and recovery measures.