California Fire Hazard Severity Zones: What They Mean, and the Share of Homes in Each Zone by County, City and ZIP
CAL FIRE's Office of the State Fire Marshal classifies land as Moderate, High or Very High fire hazard. The state-area map took effect April 1, 2024; the local-area map was recommended to cities and counties in 2025 for adoption by ordinance. Measured against 2020 housing units, 14.5% of California homes — about 2,086,394 — sit in a High or Very High zone: 4.6% under the state map and 9.9% under the 2025 local recommendations. By land area the state map alone puts 16.7% of California in Very High. This page explains the zones and what they require of owners, then lists every county, city, community and ZIP.
Maps as of: SRA zones effective April 1, 2024 (19 CCR §2201); LRA zones as recommended by OSFM on March 24, 2025 — each city and county adopts its local zones by ordinance, and we publish no adoption status, so check your local fire or planning department for the adopted map. Shares computed 2026-10-18; the state revises these maps roughly once a decade.
What the zones are, and who sets them
Government Code §51178 requires the State Fire Marshal to “identify areas in the state as moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones based on consistent statewide criteria and based on the severity of fire hazard that is expected to prevail in those areas,” using “fuel loading, slope, fire weather, and other relevant factors including areas where winds have been identified … as a major cause of wildfire spread.” The zones describe hazard — the conditions that make a wildfire likely and determine how it would behave — over a 30-to-50-year horizon, not the risk to any one house.
Two maps cover the state. In the State Responsibility Area (SRA), the wildland where CAL FIRE has fire-protection responsibility, the zones are a regulation: the current map, filed with the Secretary of State on January 31, 2024, took effect April 1, 2024 as 19 CCR §2201 (formerly 14 CCR §1280.01) and replaced the 2007 map. In Local Responsibility Areas (LRA) — incorporated cities and county land protected by local departments — the State Fire Marshal only recommends zones; each local agency must adopt them by ordinance within 120 days (§51179(a)) and “shall not decrease the level of fire hazard severity zone … and … may only increase” it (§51179(b)(3)). The 2025 recommendations were released in four phases between February 10 and March 24, 2025 and replace maps from 2007–2011. Federal land (national forests, parks, military) is on neither map.
Zones and insurance: the Department of Insurance's position
“For many years, insurance companies have been using wildfire risk models for determining where they will write and renew policies, and how much premium to charge a policyholder -- not the Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps. CAL FIRE's maps are required by law and their purpose is to drive local planning decisions, not insurance decisions.”— California Department of Insurance consumer alert, April 4, 2025
So a zone on the map is not, by itself, a reason for a non-renewal or a rate. The public data on where homeowners have ended up on the state's insurer of last resort is on the California FAIR Plan page, by county and ZIP.
What a High or Very High zone requires of an owner
- Defensible space. Public Resources Code §4291 requires 100 feet of defensible space (or to the property line) around structures in the SRA; Government Code §51182 applies the same duty in a locally designated Very High zone.
- The five-foot ember-resistant zone (“Zone 0”). Government Code §51182.4 (AB 1455, effective October 13, 2025) directs the Board of Forestry to adopt regulations for the zone 0–5 feet from a structure, with emergency rulemaking allowed under a December 31, 2025 deadline set by Executive Order N-18-25. As of October 21, 2026 no statewide Zone 0 regulation is in force: the Board adopted an emergency package in August 2026 (OAL file 2026-0828-03, received August 28, 2026) that was still in final review at the Office of Administrative Law on that date. Under Public Resources Code §4291(g) (AB 3074, 2020; amended by AB 1455, 2025) the zone takes effect for new structures only after the Board updates both the regulation and its guidance document, and for existing structures three years after that. Check the Board of Forestry for the current status.
- Selling in a High or Very High zone. Since July 1, 2021 the seller must give the buyer documentation that the property complies with §4291 or the local vegetation ordinance, obtained within the six months before sale where an inspection is available, or sign an agreement that the buyer will obtain it within a year (Civil Code §1102.19).
- Selling a pre-2010 home in those zones. The seller must state that the home predates the Wildland-Urban Interface building codes, list known fire-vulnerable features (vents with openings over 1/8 inch, wood-shake roofs, combustible material within five feet, single-pane windows) and, since July 1, 2025, which of the State Fire Marshal's low-cost retrofits were completed (Civil Code §1102.6f).
- Natural hazard disclosure. A Very High zone in the LRA is one of the items a seller must disclose (Government Code §51183.5), and so is a property in the state responsibility area (Public Resources Code §4136); both are lines on the Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement (Civil Code §1103.2).
- Building standards. New construction in these zones must meet the Wildland-Urban Interface code (Chapter 7A) under §51189.
Statewide: land and homes by zone
| Zone | Share of California's land | Share of homes (2020 housing units) |
|---|---|---|
| State area (SRA), Very High | 16.7% | 4.6% (High + Very High) |
| State area, High | 10% | |
| State area, Moderate | 3.9% | — |
| Local area (LRA, recommended 2025), Very High | 1.1% | 9.9% (High + Very High) |
| Local area, High | 1.1% | |
| Local area, Moderate | 4.4% | — |
| Not zoned (federal land, local non-wildland, water) | 62.7% | — |
| Any High or Very High zone | 29% | 14.5% (Very High alone: 9.6%) |
Each row is rounded separately, so the four High and Very High land rows add to 28.9% while the total row is computed from the unrounded shares.
The two measures tell different stories: most Very High land is sparsely populated wildland under the state map, while most of the homes in High or Very High zones sit in cities under the local recommendations. Examples from the searchable city table below (it loads in the browser; the two top-25 lists are a subset): Paradise 100% of homes, Malibu 90.5%, the City of Los Angeles 15.6%.
Share of homes and land in fire hazard zones, by county
Sorted by the share of homes in any High or Very High zone. “State” columns are the effective SRA map; “local” columns are OSFM's 2025 recommendations. Nevada County leads with 93.4% of its homes. The state and local shares are rounded separately, so they can differ from the total by 0.1 point. Each county links to its property-tax guide.
| County | Homes (2020) | Homes in High/Very High | state | local (rec.) | Very High only | Land: state Very High | state High | local Very High (rec.) | not zoned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nevada | 53,627 | 93.4% | 56.1% | 37.3% | 76.3% | 48.7% | 12.2% | 3.4% | 34.7% |
| Tuolumne | 31,416 | 91.2% | 83.2% | 8% | 62.8% | 16.5% | 7.9% | 0.1% | 75.2% |
| Calaveras | 27,422 | 89.4% | 83.7% | 5.7% | 55.1% | 53.5% | 25.4% | 0.1% | 20.1% |
| Mono | 13,589 | 85.1% | 18.3% | 66.9% | 59.3% | 0.9% | 6.7% | 0.1% | 86.5% |
| Amador | 18,805 | 84.2% | 61.3% | 22.8% | 52.4% | 43.4% | 26.7% | 0.6% | 23.7% |
| Mariposa | 9,759 | 84.1% | 84.1% | 0% | 49.7% | 23.4% | 22% | 0% | 52.6% |
| Plumas | 15,396 | 80.6% | 61.1% | 19.5% | 67.9% | 21.2% | 3.2% | 0.3% | 73.4% |
| Siskiyou | 22,929 | 79.8% | 46.3% | 33.6% | 63.5% | 26.2% | 6.9% | 0.4% | 64.3% |
| Lake | 34,220 | 70% | 44.7% | 25.3% | 56% | 43.1% | 2.6% | 1.8% | 50% |
| Trinity | 8,183 | 67.1% | 67.1% | 0% | 63.5% | 23% | 0.7% | 0% | 76.2% |
| El Dorado | 93,467 | 66.4% | 45.5% | 21% | 50.2% | 36.7% | 9.6% | 0.9% | 50.6% |
| Alpine | 1,540 | 64.7% | 64.7% | 0% | 13.1% | 3% | 3% | 0% | 92.8% |
| Sierra | 2,127 | 57.6% | 56.7% | 0.9% | 44.3% | 19.7% | 5.2% | 0.1% | 74.2% |
| Lassen | 12,216 | 56.8% | 34.1% | 22.7% | 26.9% | 14% | 17.5% | 0.1% | 63.8% |
| Shasta | 79,380 | 51% | 27.7% | 23.3% | 31.6% | 47.4% | 7.7% | 1.2% | 41.7% |
| Mendocino | 41,367 | 47.3% | 34.6% | 12.7% | 22.4% | 35.7% | 32.7% | 0.4% | 16.2% |
| Modoc | 4,752 | 36% | 27.9% | 8.1% | 12% | 10.9% | 8.9% | 0.1% | 74.1% |
| Inyo | 9,469 | 34.5% | 18.8% | 15.7% | 1.7% | 0% | 2% | 0% | 92.8% |
| San Luis Obispo | 123,714 | 32.2% | 15.8% | 16.4% | 12.3% | 27.6% | 37.4% | 0.6% | 24.7% |
| Ventura | 293,077 | 32.2% | 4.2% | 28% | 25.2% | 28.7% | 1% | 7.5% | 60.1% |
| Tehama | 27,341 | 30.4% | 27.3% | 3.1% | 12.4% | 40.3% | 24.3% | 0.1% | 29.9% |
| San Diego | 1,228,057 | 26% | 5.6% | 20.4% | 17.8% | 31.4% | 4.7% | 5.8% | 39.1% |
| Butte | 90,133 | 25.1% | 16.9% | 8.3% | 14.7% | 36.2% | 11.3% | 1.4% | 43.3% |
| Madera | 49,572 | 24.3% | 24.2% | 0.1% | 8.7% | 9% | 15.8% | 0% | 70.1% |
| Marin | 111,530 | 23.2% | 7.3% | 15.9% | 2.8% | 7.6% | 29.4% | 0.6% | 34% |
| Placer | 172,356 | 23% | 19.6% | 3.3% | 15.8% | 24.4% | 8.2% | 0.4% | 57.4% |
| Santa Cruz | 106,150 | 22.9% | 18.8% | 4.1% | 2.9% | 8.7% | 59.4% | 0.2% | 14% |
| Monterey | 143,625 | 22.1% | 12.3% | 9.8% | 11.2% | 35.3% | 22.4% | 0.4% | 35.6% |
| Riverside | 848,549 | 19.5% | 3.8% | 15.7% | 14.6% | 11.4% | 0.8% | 3.4% | 72.9% |
| San Bernardino | 731,899 | 16.8% | 6.5% | 10.3% | 11.5% | 1.1% | 0.6% | 0.9% | 83.6% |
| Sonoma | 204,740 | 16.2% | 8.8% | 7.5% | 5.5% | 31.9% | 26.9% | 0.9% | 13.9% |
| Yuba | 29,458 | 16.2% | 16.2% | 0% | 8.4% | 28.9% | 16.8% | 0% | 44.9% |
| Napa | 55,448 | 15.3% | 10.5% | 4.9% | 8.2% | 52.5% | 15.4% | 1% | 23.5% |
| Los Angeles | 3,590,158 | 13.1% | 0.7% | 12.4% | 10.6% | 17.4% | 0.8% | 11.9% | 55% |
| Orange | 1,129,226 | 12.3% | 0.8% | 11.4% | 8.1% | 20% | 0.6% | 12.7% | 60.4% |
| Santa Barbara | 158,279 | 11.6% | 6.5% | 5.1% | 7.2% | 28.6% | 12% | 0.5% | 52.9% |
| Contra Costa | 423,341 | 11.3% | 1.5% | 9.9% | 3.6% | 14.1% | 24.4% | 3.3% | 45.7% |
| San Benito | 20,365 | 10.5% | 9.2% | 1.3% | 2.3% | 44.8% | 30.2% | 0% | 16.1% |
| Humboldt | 62,120 | 10.3% | 9.3% | 1% | 3.9% | 21.3% | 29.2% | 0% | 28.9% |
| Kern | 301,009 | 8.3% | 6.9% | 1.4% | 4.5% | 12.4% | 14.9% | 0.1% | 50.7% |
| San Mateo | 283,686 | 7.5% | 1.4% | 6.1% | 3% | 18.4% | 39% | 2.4% | 27.4% |
| Del Norte | 11,090 | 7.3% | 6.9% | 0.4% | 4.2% | 7% | 8.2% | 0% | 70.4% |
| Colusa | 8,099 | 5% | 4.9% | 0.1% | 3.5% | 23.3% | 9.8% | 0% | 65.6% |
| Solano | 162,237 | 5% | 1% | 4% | 0.2% | 5.5% | 4.8% | 0.1% | 66.3% |
| Alameda | 621,949 | 3.8% | 0.6% | 3.2% | 1% | 24.1% | 22.6% | 0.6% | 37% |
| Glenn | 10,895 | 3.7% | 2.8% | 0.9% | 1.3% | 12.6% | 21.9% | 0% | 62.6% |
| Santa Clara | 688,080 | 2.9% | 0.8% | 2.1% | 0.9% | 49.1% | 14.8% | 1.8% | 24.7% |
| Tulare | 150,652 | 2.7% | 2.6% | 0.1% | 1.6% | 7.1% | 6.4% | 0% | 79.8% |
| Fresno | 338,441 | 2.6% | 2.6% | 0% | 1.3% | 7.6% | 9.9% | 0% | 78.3% |
| Kings | 46,287 | 1% | 0% | 1% | 0% | 3.6% | 10.6% | 0% | 76.7% |
| Yolo | 80,188 | 1% | 0.6% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 18% | 6.8% | 0.2% | 66.7% |
| Stanislaus | 183,140 | 0.8% | 0.6% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 22.4% | 16% | 0.1% | 49.6% |
| Sutter | 34,499 | 0.4% | 0% | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0% | 0% | 4.8% | 84.7% |
| Sacramento | 587,551 | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0% | 0.2% | 4% | 0.2% | 69.4% |
| Merced | 87,783 | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0% | 0% | 8.6% | 14.9% | 0% | 61.1% |
| San Joaquin | 251,453 | 0.1% | 0% | 0.1% | 0% | 3.5% | 3.7% | 0% | 82.5% |
| Imperial | 56,625 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 88.1% |
| San Francisco | 406,456 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 99.7% |
Cities and communities
Highest share of homes in High or Very High (places with 1,000+ homes)
- Boulder Creek (CDP), Santa Cruz: 100% of 2,505 homes
- Clearlake Riviera (CDP), Lake: 100% of 1,582 homes
- Dunsmuir, Siskiyou: 100% of 1,091 homes
- Hidden Meadows (CDP), San Diego: 100% of 2,245 homes
- Lake Almanor Country Club (CDP), Plumas: 100% of 1,486 homes
- Lake of the Pines (CDP), Nevada: 100% of 2,044 homes
- Lake Shastina (CDP), Siskiyou: 100% of 1,261 homes
- Lexington Hills (CDP), Santa Clara: 100% of 1,017 homes
- Mono Vista (CDP), Tuolumne: 100% of 1,448 homes
- Nevada City, Nevada: 100% of 1,631 homes
- Paradise, Butte: 100% of 2,494 homes
- Santa Rosa Valley (CDP), Ventura: 100% of 1,168 homes
- Twain Harte (CDP), Tuolumne: 100% of 2,154 homes
- Weed, Siskiyou: 100% of 1,281 homes
- Yosemite Lakes (CDP), Madera: 100% of 2,153 homes
- Fairbanks Ranch (CDP), San Diego: 99.9% of 1,220 homes
- Guerneville (CDP), Sonoma: 99.9% of 3,093 homes
- Lake Nacimiento (CDP), San Luis Obispo: 99.9% of 1,773 homes
- Murphys (CDP), Calaveras: 99.9% of 1,215 homes
- Oak View (CDP), Ventura: 99.9% of 2,328 homes
- Sonora, Tuolumne: 99.9% of 2,515 homes
- Bonsall (CDP), San Diego: 99.8% of 1,789 homes
- La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles: 99.8% of 7,057 homes
- Phoenix Lake (CDP), Tuolumne: 99.8% of 1,973 homes
- Portola, Plumas: 99.8% of 1,076 homes
Most homes in High or Very High zones
- Los Angeles, Los Angeles: about 233,376 homes (15.6%)
- San Diego, San Diego: about 124,575 homes (22.7%)
- Santa Clarita, Los Angeles: about 42,554 homes (53.4%)
- Thousand Oaks, Ventura: about 26,504 homes (55.1%)
- Glendale, Los Angeles: about 23,735 homes (29.6%)
- Simi Valley, Ventura: about 17,834 homes (40.6%)
- Carlsbad, San Diego: about 17,668 homes (37%)
- Irvine, Orange: about 17,286 homes (14.5%)
- San Marcos, San Diego: about 15,214 homes (47.9%)
- Chula Vista, San Diego: about 14,838 homes (17%)
- Riverside, Riverside: about 14,439 homes (14.4%)
- South Lake Tahoe, El Dorado: about 12,976 homes (81.5%)
- Truckee, Nevada: about 12,933 homes (96.7%)
- Chino Hills, San Bernardino: about 12,799 homes (49.1%)
- Rancho Santa Margarita, Orange: about 12,659 homes (71.9%)
- Lake Elsinore, Riverside: about 12,506 homes (59.2%)
- Palmdale, Los Angeles: about 12,216 homes (24.6%)
- Murrieta, Riverside: about 11,852 homes (32.2%)
- Menifee, Riverside: about 10,958 homes (30%)
- San Clemente, Orange: about 10,940 homes (41.1%)
- Lake Arrowhead, San Bernardino: about 10,914 homes (93%)
- Santee, San Diego: about 10,860 homes (49.7%)
- Redding, Shasta: about 10,782 homes (26.9%)
- Big Bear City, San Bernardino: about 10,671 homes (88.6%)
- Poway, San Diego: about 10,666 homes (63.2%)
Every city and Census-designated place
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Every ZIP code
ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (the Census Bureau's ZIP shapes), 1,802 in California. A ZIP that straddles the SRA and a city can score under both maps.
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Download: fhsz-places.json (1,618 places) and fhsz-zctas.json (1,802 ZCTAs), CC BY 4.0.
Method and sources: CAL FIRE / OSFM zone polygons — SRA map dated September 29, 2023, filed January 31, 2024, effective April 1, 2024 (19 CCR §2201), and the OSFM recommended LRA map dated March 24, 2025 — intersected with Census cartographic boundaries (2024 counties and places; 2020 ZCTAs) in California Albers (EPSG:3310); an 11.4 km² overlap between the two layers was resolved in favour of the adopted SRA regulation. “Share of land” divides each class's area by the unit's area; “not zoned” includes federal land, local non-wildland and water. “Share of homes” weights 2020 Census block housing units by the zone each block falls in. Shares were checked against a 500 m point grid (statewide SRA Very High 16.70% both ways) and a second CAL FIRE layer. Government Code §§51175–51189, Civil Code §§1102.6f and 1102.19 and 19 CCR §2201 as in force 2026-10-18. The zone of any one parcel is on the official OSFM viewer and in your local adopted ordinance; nothing here is a statement about a specific property or its insurability.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Fire Hazard Severity Zone?
A classification the State Fire Marshal (CAL FIRE's Office of the State Fire Marshal) must assign to land based on the severity of fire hazard expected there — fuel loading, slope, fire weather and other factors including wind corridors (Government Code §51178). The classes are Moderate, High and Very High. The zones measure hazard, meaning the physical conditions that create a likelihood of wildfire and how it would behave, not the risk to a specific building.
What is the difference between the State Responsibility Area and Local Responsibility Area maps?
In the State Responsibility Area (SRA), where CAL FIRE has fire-protection responsibility, the zones are a state regulation: the current map took effect April 1, 2024 (19 CCR §2201). In Local Responsibility Areas (LRA) — cities and county land protected by local fire departments — the State Fire Marshal recommends zones and each city or county adopts them by ordinance within 120 days (Government Code §51179). The 2025 recommendations were released in four phases from February 10 to March 24, 2025. A local agency may raise a recommended zone but may not lower it, so an adopted local map is at least as strict as the recommendation.
Is my house in a fire hazard severity zone?
Use the official Fire Hazard Severity Zone viewer at CAL FIRE / OSFM, which shows the effective SRA zones and the 2025 LRA recommendations by address, and check with your city or county for the adopted local map. The tables on this page give the share of homes in each zone for every county, city, community and ZIP, which tells you how common a zone is where you live but not the zone of one parcel.
Do fire hazard zones affect home insurance?
Not directly. The Department of Insurance's consumer alert of April 4, 2025 says insurers use their own wildfire risk models, not the Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps, to decide where they write and renew and what to charge. The maps exist to drive local planning, building codes and defensible-space rules. Separately, a home in a High or Very High zone carries disclosure duties when it is sold.
What do I have to do if my home is in a High or Very High zone?
Maintain defensible space under Public Resources Code §4291 (100 feet, or to the property line) and, in a locally designated Very High zone, Government Code §51182. When you sell a home in a High or Very High zone you must give the buyer documentation of defensible-space compliance obtained within six months, or sign an agreement that the buyer will obtain it within a year (Civil Code §1102.19). If the home was built before 2010 you must also disclose known fire-vulnerable features and, since July 1, 2025, which low-cost retrofits were completed (Civil Code §1102.6f).
What is Zone 0?
The ember-resistant zone within five feet of a structure. Government Code §51182.4, added by AB 1455 in October 2025, directs the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to adopt regulations for that zone, with emergency rulemaking allowed and a December 31, 2025 deadline set by the Governor's executive order N-18-25. That deadline has passed and, as of October 2026, no statewide Zone 0 regulation is in force: the Board's August 2026 emergency package (OAL file 2026-0828-03) was still in final review at the Office of Administrative Law, so there is no Zone 0 rule to comply with yet. Under Public Resources Code §4291(g) the zone applies to new structures only once the Board updates both the regulation and its guidance document, and to existing structures three years after that. The FAIR Plan already gives a hardening discount for a cleared five-foot zone. Check the Board of Forestry for the current status of the regulation.
How often do the maps change?
Rarely. The SRA map in force today replaced one from 2007 and took effect April 1, 2024. The LRA recommendations before 2025 dated from 2007–2011. Expect the next statewide revision on roughly a ten-year cycle, with local adoption ordinances continuing through 2025 and 2026.
Which parts of California have the most homes in High or Very High zones?
By share of homes, Nevada (93.4%), Tuolumne (91.2%) and Calaveras (89.4%) counties lead. By count, Los Angeles has the most such homes (about 233,376), followed by San Diego (124,575). Statewide, 14.5% of homes — about 2,086,394 — are in a High or Very High zone, 4.6% under the state map and 9.9% under the 2025 local recommendations.