MENDOCINO CO., 3/26/25 – Cal Fire’s recently released fire hazard severity zone maps could force residents in parts of Ukiah and other areas of Mendocino County to modify their homes to comply with new fire mitigation rules.
Last month, the Office of the State Fire Marshal released new Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps to identify wildfire risk throughout the state. According to the updated maps in Mendocino County, most of the western side of Ukiah is now classified as a very high fire severity zone.
In the city of Ukiah, 1,443 acres have been categorized as “very high” fire hazard severity zones, an increase from 388 acres in 2011, which was when OSFM last updated the severity zone maps. Most of the west side of Ukiah is now categorized as a very high zone.
The severity zone maps are created by assigning a hazard score based on factors such as a region’s fire history, natural vegetation and weather patterns. The maps categorize hazard levels into three tiers: moderate, high, and very high.
Severity zone maps identify hazard but not risk, meaning they highlight natural conditions, such as the surrounding environment, but do not account for human factors like the number of homes, infrastructure, or other factors.
Following the devastating fires that blazed throughout Southern California earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order in February that mandated OSFM to update the fire severity zone maps for the entire state.
The order also requested that the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, which is a division under Cal Fire, adopt regulations such as the “Zone 0” regulation, which requires an ember-resistant zone within 5 feet of buildings.
The severity zone maps also classify regions into three types of “responsibility areas,” which designate which agencies manage fire hazards. State responsibility areas are managed by Cal Fire, local responsibility areas by local fire departments, and federal responsibility areas by federal agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service.
Chief Jim McDougald, assistant deputy director of community wildfire planning and risk reduction at Cal Fire, said that while Mendocino County has jurisdictions classified as local responsibility areas, all unincorporated areas in the county are state responsibility areas managed by entities such as Cal Fire. As a result, those areas are subject to different standards than local jurisdictions.
For the Zone 0 requirement, only very high fire severity zones in local areas must maintain an ember-resistant zone within 5 feet of structures, while all severity zones in the state-managed unincorporated areas must comply with this rule.
“In the state responsibility area, which a lot of Mendocino County is, these regulations would apply to all zones in the state area,” McDougald said. “The state decided that the minimum in state responsibility areas would be defensible space, everywhere.”
In the unincorporated sections of Mendocino County, 12,564 unincorporated acres are classified as moderate fire severity zones, 6,920 acres as high, and 8,402 acres as very high. Many unincorporated areas in the very high fire severity zone are near Ukiah and Willits, along the eastern side of U.S. Highway 101.
This means that homeowners throughout the county, in very high zones in local responsibility areas and the entirety of state responsibility areas, will be required to update their residences to comply with new regulations like the Zone 0 rule. The compliance deadline for new regulations has not been released, but the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection and the state fire marshal are expected to finalize the timeline by December of this year.
In addition, local governments such as the city of Ukiah are allowed to implement stricter regulations and building codes to mitigate fire hazard. New regulations will likely be proposed for the very high fire hazard severity zones in the city.
“If local governments do change standards, it will make buildings look a lot different, at least from the exterior,” said Fire Chief Sascha Kissell from the Whale Gulch Volunteer Fire Company, located in the northwestern region of the Mendocino Coast. “In these rural communities, homeowners are very spread out. A lot of people who have decks would be in trouble with the Zone 0 requirement.”
Kissell noted that many homeowners who have lived in Mendocino County for decades could have a difficult time altering their homes to fit the new requirements.
“People love the way their wood fences and wood houses look,” he said. “However, some people are focusing on fire resilience in a new fire era. Time will tell, and for a big community like Ukiah, that is a huge undertaking.”
He also explained that it’s nearly impossible for entities like Cal Fire to inspect every residence in the county that is being required to comply with new rules.
“I don’t know that Cal Fire has enough manpower to police that,” he added. “But it could possibly impact people’s insurance and that could inspire people to change things.”
The cities of Fort Bragg and Point Arena have no areas categorized as very high severity zones. Willits has 122 acres in the very high category.
People can find out which zone they are in by visiting osfm.fire.ca.gov/FHSZ.