In line with the governor's executive order on fire safety last week, Cal Fire has begun releasing new hazard maps for local jurisdictions.
The old maps only showed local areas deemed 'very high' fire hazards, but state Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant says the new ones cover much broader ground.
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"So not only are we seeing updated areas get that highest designation, but we're also now adding two other levels of severity, and so that has increased the amount of the state that is covered in one of these fire hazard severity zones," Berlant told KNX News' Karen Adams.
Coming changes will see more than 2 million acres in local fire jurisdictions zoned as 'very high' fire hazards.
Berlant explains that implementing this new science-based model will help his department provide a more accurate map of areas at significant risk, and allow them to tie wildfire mitigation efforts to them.
"We define how we build homes and the types of requirements around those homes to reduce the risk of those homes being damaged or destroyed by wildfires," Berlant said.
Areas that were not included in the old maps, like West of Lake and Altadena, would most likely be added to the updated ones.
The new maps for local jurisdictions in Southern California are set to be released in March.
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