![]() ![]() He said updated hazard mapping was also among the recommendations in the agency’s first report on climate insurance, issued last year. The new rules mandate that insurance companies reward consumers who take mitigation actions under the state’s Safer From Wildfires framework, which includes a list of actions that home and businesses owners can take to better protect themselves from fires. Insurance Department spokesman Michael Soller said that California this year became the first state in the nation to require insurance premium discounts for owners of homes and businesses that are made safer from wildfires. ![]() Regulation directs insurance companies to reward consumers who take wildfire mitigation actions under the state’s Safer from Wildfires framework. “While insurance companies use similar methodologies to calculate risk as they price their insurance offerings to consumers, insurance risk models also incorporate many factors beyond this process, and many of these factors can change more frequently than those that Cal Fire includes in its hazard mapping,” the agency said in a news release.Ĭalifornia California to require insurance discounts for property owners who reduce wildfire risk It will not have direct implications for homeowners insurance, the agency said, although many residents in recent years have reported skyrocketing rates related to worsening fires. “I encourage Californians to ask questions in this public process and to learn more about the tools that exist to help communities and governments reduce their local risks.”Ĭal Fire said the map could help guide residents’ decisions about where to live and local governments’ decisions about where to build. “Public education about where current wildfire hazards exist is essential to reducing the threat to local communities and maintaining access to affordable insurance,” said a statement from Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. It is not the same as risk mapping, which is used by insurance companies and can account for short-term efforts such as defensible space clearing and fire-resistant building upgrades. Officials said the hazard map is based primarily on physical conditions - such as an area’s topography, vegetation and previous fire history - and is intended to show the likelihood of fire behavior over a 30- to 50-year period. Toggling between the previous map and the current iteration, it’s easy to see how “the zones kind of oozed ‘high fire severity’ down into what used to be low severity or moderate areas,” said Doug Teeter, incoming chair of the Rural County Representatives of California. The update puts nearly 55% of the state’s SRA acreage into the “very high” category, up from about 48% in 2007. ![]() Such urban areas will be folded into a second round of map updates next year.īut the findings paint a stark portrait of the escalating danger posed by California’s blazes, which killed nine people this year, primarily in rural communities. ![]() Forest Service, or cities and large urban areas managed by local governments. It does not include federally managed areas, such as those overseen by the U.S. The SRA is composed primarily of rural and unincorporated areas and represents about a third of California’s land, Berlant said. The proposed map covers about 31 million acres that are categorized as the State Responsibility Area, or the area for which the state is responsible for preventing and suppressing wildfires. ![]()
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