This story was originally published by Fresnoland.
For the first time in more than a decade, California fire officials have updated their local wildfire maps, revealing what many north Fresno residents never knew: Flames could race along the San Joaquin River, potentially threatening Valley Children’s Hospital and homes along the bluffs, from multi-million dollar estates to riverbed mobile home parks.
The new maps – mandated by 2021 state legislation – are the first to assess “high” and “moderate” fire hazards in areas under local fire department jurisdiction. Previously, Cal Fire only mapped “very high” severity zones in these areas.
The new Fresno and Madera County areas designated as ‘moderate’ fire hazard zones:
- Woodward Bluffs Mobile Home Park
- Wildwood Mobile Home Park
- Parts of the San Joaquin River Bluffs neighborhood in northwest Fresno
- Parts of Tesoro Viejo
- Parts of neighborhoods near Friant and Willow in northeast Fresno, including Monte Verdi Estates
- Some rural residential areas north of Shepherd, along Dry Creek outside of Clovis
- Some rural residential areas along the Kings River corridor, below Pine Flat
- Sycamore Island
- Jensen River Ranch at Woodward Park
- Bonadelle Ranchos
- CEMEX’s San Joaquin River gravel mining facility
- Lost Lake Park
These neighborhoods join several others in the Fresno-Clovis area already designated as “moderate” or “high” fire severity zones, but are under the responsibility of Cal Fire, including Tesoro Viejo (north of Madera Canal) and several of the unincorporated subdivisions near Millerton Lake.
Don’t let the bureaucratic language fool you: Much of Altadena wasn’t even rated “moderate” before it burned to ash this winter.
An interactive map to look up your property’s fire hazard severity zone can be found on Cal Fire’s website.
This risk to north Fresno and Clovis neighborhoods sparked a new conversation on June 10, when the Fresno County Board of Supervisors convened the first of two mandatory hearings on Cal Fire’s updated hazard maps – documents that designate more than 800,000 acres in Fresno County as fire-prone territory requiring special protections.
In Madera County, more than 400,000 acres have received the special designation as well.
Each level of hazard carries new requirements on how resilient a property must be towards potential wildfire.
“High” and “very high” local responsibility hazard areas must get in line with the state’s wildfire-proof building code. “Moderate” zones like the Bonadelle Ranchos and Fresno’s bluff homes, however, are exempted by the state legislature from much of the building requirements, according to Cal Fire. In those cases, the county has to just explain what a fire hazard zone is.
The rules are different for homes in “moderate” zones under the state’s responsibility.
As Fresno County considers finalizing the new hazard boundaries, county supervisors are concerned about the impact of admitting the fire hazard on property values.
Property sellers must disclose their Cal Fire hazard zone designation to buyers – a requirement that cut home values by an average of 4.3% in other California fire zones, according to a 2023 study.
Disclosure rules vary based on the severity of the fire hazard and whether the property is under state or local responsibility.
In Fresno County, developers are warming up to the idea of turning the foothill areas into luxury new towns, and the county is encouraging it. Cal Fire’s latest maps identified more of those areas as fire hazard zones under local responsibility. But this hazard hasn’t poured cold water on the county’s new town dreams – yet.
At the June 10 meeting, discussion of the new fire hazard maps was short: clocking in under 10 minutes, where officials focused on downgrading the hazard designations.
Supervisor Nathan Magsig’s primary concern was about whether property owners could “get credit” for existing mitigation efforts by getting their hazard zone downgraded.
He said that residents should get credit for already making their homes more resilient to wildfire risk.
“I don’t think they [Cal Fire] really take into consideration communities within the zones that have done work to remove high-hazard fuels,” Magsig said. “So maybe we can reach out to Cal Fire about..maybe almost create islands within some of these [hazard] zones.”
As the county process moves forward, residents can demand more areas be added to the fire maps or push for higher hazard ratings in already-flagged zones.
That would trigger California’s fire-safe building codes called Chapter 7a – requirements that should be obvious as wildfire dangers explode across a heating planet, said Crystal Kolden, director of UC Merced’s Fire Resilience Center.
The state’s fire-safe standards “should apply statewide,” not just in mapped fire zones, she argued. Building fire-resistant homes costs marginally more upfront but prevents catastrophic losses later, she said. And fire maps will never capture every at-risk area as the climate rapidly heats up.
“It is such a quandary to me why we treat wildfires differently than earthquakes,” she said. “We will never be able to fully predict where the worst fires will be.”
California doesn’t exempt buildings from earthquake codes just because they’re far from fault lines. Yet the state lets developers in fire-prone areas off the hook for fire building codes in the “wildland urban interface,” also known as the WUI – potentially for another generation.
“In many ways, exempting the [local agencies] of 7a [fire codes] is kicking the can down the road. Overtime, you will begin to see greater flammability [in these new development areas],” she said.
Los Angeles County, whose latest wildfire this winter caused $250 billion in damage, has launched aggressive programs to restrict development in high-risk areas, even in moderate zones. And aggressive upgrades in South Lake Tahoe – led by local agencies – saved the town from the Caldor Fire, Kolden said.
“We should take all buildings, not just those flagged by imperfect models,” she said.
Fresno County’s next hearing on Cal Fire’s new hazard maps is Jun. 24. Public comments can be submitted to Amy Ryals in the County Administrative Office.