Fire Hazard Severity Zones in State Responsibility Areas

Public Resources Code 4201-4204 direct the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) to map fire hazard within State Responsibility Areas (SRA), based on relevant factors such as fuels, terrain, and weather. These statutes were passed after significant wildland-urban interface fires; consequently these hazards are described according to their potential for causing ignitions to buildings. These zones referred to as Fire Hazard Severity Zones(FHSZ), provide the basis for application of various mitigation strategies to reduce risks to buildings associated with wildland fires. The zones also relate to the requirements for building codes designed to reduce the ignition potential to buildings in the wildland-urban interface zones.

These maps have been created by CAL FIRE's Fire and Resource Assessment Program (FRAP) using data and models describing development patterns, estimated fire behavior characteristics based on potential fuels over a 30-50 year time horizon, and expected burn probabilities to quantify the likelihood and nature of vegetation fire exposure to new construction. Details on the project and specific modeling methodology can be found at http://frap.cdf.ca.gov/projects/hazard/methods.htm.