Massive swaths of the North State are now deemed to be at a very high risk of wildfire.
Cal Fire this week released the first of several planned updates to its fire hazard maps, designating over three thousand more acres of Butte County to its highest risk category.
In total, more than fourteen thousand acres of Butte County is considered at a very high risk for wildfire. Over twenty-one thousand acres of Butte County is considered high risk and thirty-six thousand acres moderate risk.
Northern Chico and Forest Ranch saw the majority of the newly designated land in the county, followed closely by Paradise.
Dave Sapsis is a research manager with Cal Fire. He said the maps shouldn’t come as a surprise to residents in fire-prone areas of California.
“Environmental conditions, fire weather is getting more severe, and fuels are accumulating,” Sapsis said. “We're seeing some fundamental kind of changes to vegetation and fuels as a function of things like protracted drought causing a lot of tree mortality.”
Devastating fires like the 2018 Camp Fire, 2020 North Complex, 2021 Dixie Fire and 2024 Park Fire are partially a result of these changing behavior patterns caused by climate change.
There is a lot of fear from homeowners that the new hazard maps will make already hard-to-get insurance coverage even more difficult in at-risk areas of the state.
The California Department of Insurance said the new maps will not impact insurance coverage. Insurers use different maps to assess risks to homes and buildings.
Cal Fire’s hazard maps are meant to assess fire trends, while insurers use risk models to predict the cost of damages to structures.
“We're not trying to punish people,” Sapsis said. “We're trying to accurately characterize their wildfire hazard over the next set of decades.”
Like living in a flood zone, he said, residents in fire-prone areas of California need to be aware of the dangers they face and how to stay safe.
“We're really just basically saying, ‘Here's what we think the fire exposure is to potential assets that might be in the way’ and those kinds of assets that we're really focusing on are related to the built environment, basically, structures, houses,” Sapsis said.
The main changes to come from the new hazard maps are building code standards.
Construction in moderate, high and very high fire zones have to comply with stricter building codes in order to protect against wildfire. Local municipalities will work with Cal Fire over the coming months to help update the hazard maps and determine what policy changes and codes need to be updated on a local level.
Other North State counties with new very high wildfire risk levels are Shasta, Siskiyou, Sutter and Lassen.
