More than half of rural California now at "high risk" for wildfire

Hayley Smith and Sean Greene report for the Los Angeles Times yesterday.

For the first time, more than half of California’s rural and unincorporated communities could soon be classified as “very high” fire hazard severity zones, according to a proposed map from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Officials unveiled the new map — which ranks the likelihood of certain areas to experience wildfire as “very high,” “high” or “moderate” — this month and are taking public comments through February. If approved, nearly 17 million acres will fall under the worst ranking from the Office of the State Fire Marshal, a 14.6% increase since the map was last updated in 2007.

The change is largely a reflection of the state’s worsening fire activity, said Daniel Berlant, Cal Fire’s deputy director of community wildfire preparedness and mitigation. That includes larger, faster and more frequent blazes, many of which are being fueled by a buildup of vegetation and California’s warming, drying climate.

“That increase really is reflective of what our firefighters have been experiencing over the last several years — more severe wildfires in areas that maybe historically, or decades ago, didn’t have the same susceptibility to wildfires as they do today,” Berlant said. “While the results of the map aren’t necessarily surprising, they really are reflective of a changing climate and an increasing severity of wildfires.”