Do you live in a high fire hazard zone? 

CalFire has released updated fire hazard maps for Santa Barbara County and the rest of the state, showing land in moderate, high or very high hazard zones. 

There was a big expansion of zones statewide, but there wasn’t as much change to Santa Barbara County maps, according to county Fire Marshal Fred Tan. 

“There’s not a whole lot of expansion, and the places they expanded make sense,” he said of the state maps. 

“We’re actually surprised, I think, that there wasn’t more.” 

Counties and cities are reviewing the maps and considering amendments. Agencies are allowed to make changes to the CalFire maps, but only by expanding hazard zones, not reducing them.  

Departments will be presenting the maps to the public soon, and city councils and the Board of Supervisors have a few months to adopt them. 

The county Fire Department plans to add more areas as fire hazard zones based on local knowledge and fire history, Tan said. 

CalFire issued fire hazard severity map proposals for: 

• City of Santa Barbara 
• City of Goleta 
• City of Carpinteria
• City of Solvang 
• City of Buellton 
• City of Lompoc 
• City of Santa Maria
• Santa Barbara County unincorporated areas 

Check your address on the interactive fire hazard zone map here.

You can also compare the current maps to the proposed new state maps.

Click through the slideshow below to view the proposed CalFire maps.

How Maps Were Made 

CalFire developed the maps by looking at the physical conditions of a place — the fire history, vegetation (as potential wildfire fuel), predicted flame length, blowing embers, terrain, and typical fire weather for the area.

Hazard maps are not the same as measuring fire risk, which considers the “potential damage a fire can do to the area under existing conditions,” the agency added. 

“They don’t take into consideration any mitigations that homeowners or local jurisdictions have taken, like fuel breaks or fuel reduction efforts, any home hardening, high fire hazard construction standards,” Tan said. 

“The maps are essentially based on science, and we can’t reduce the maps, but based off our local knowledge and experience of other hazards that we know of locally, we are allowed to expand them.” 

A CalMatters analysis found that some hazard areas receded in the new maps, but overall, the zones increased by 168% statewide compared with the 2011 maps. 

The high and very high hazard zones — in orange and red on the CalFire maps — cover 3,626 square miles for California. That’s home to about 3.7 million people, CalMatters reported.

Properties in Fire Hazard Zones 

Properties in fire hazard zones will be subject to defensible space inspections from local fire departments, Tan said. New construction in high fire hazard zones has to comply with fire-resistant building standards, he added.

When the fire hazard maps came out around 2011, “it was quite a bit more expensive to build to that high fire hazard standard,” he said. “Most standards now are already in place for most projects you can see now.” 

Solvang had no fire hazard zones indicated on the previous map, but the update puts several areas in the moderate, high and very high hazard zones. 

The city released the map on Monday and is planning public information sessions about it.  

Property owners in high fire hazard zones have to have defensible space and disclose the fire hazard status in real estate transactions, according to the city. 

Insurance Commissioner Says New Maps ‘Unlikely’ to Affect Homeowner Policies 

Some Santa Barbara County homeowners have lost insurance policies or seen premiums increase substantially in recent years, partly because of wildfire risk. 

State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara put out a statement about the new maps, saying they are unlikely to affect policies. 

“CalFire’s maps are intended to drive local planning decisions, not insurance decisions,” his office said. 

Under new state regulations, “insurance companies must provide discounts for wildfire safety actions such as community mitigation and home-hardening, which CalFire’s maps do not assess,” Lara’s office said.

“In addition, insurance companies are already using risk analysis tools and models that go beyond CalFire’s proposed maps in determining what properties they will underwrite. 

Since companies are using their own models, “a change in designation on the maps for a single homeowner is unlikely to affect their insurance,” Lara’s office said. 

Tan said he often gets insurance questions at community town hall meetings about wildfires. 

Insurance companies can’t just look at hazards; they have to assess the risk of a home — and that includes mitigation measures people can take, he said. 

He encouraged homeowners to look into defensible space and home hardening methods, with lots of information available from groups such as the FireSafe Council of Santa Barbara County. 

One step is reducing plants and ignitable materials in a home’s so-called Zone 0, from the edge of the building out 5 feet. 

The county already requires a Zone 0, or buffer zone, in new construction in certain areas, and at some point it may be required more widely, Tan added.

“It is a good idea for Santa Barbara County to start working toward Zone 0 compliance, especially in fire hazard zones,” he said.