Home Care in Hesperia, CA

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials on Monday unveiled updated fire hazard maps for the High Desert and other portions of Southern California

The new Cal Fire rankings, the first in nearly 14 years, categorize fire severity levels as moderate, high and very high in San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Mono, Imperial, and Inyo counties.

In the High Desert, new “very high” zones include portions of south Hesperia, including Summit Valley, and the east side of Interstate 15 from near Main Street to the Cajon Pass.

Summit Valley is home to the Silverwood master-planned community, which recently unveiled a group of model homes in Phase 1 of the 15,633 dwelling unit project.

Portions of Apple Valley and Old Town Victorville have been marked “high,” with nearly the entire Victor Valley and High Desert now at the “moderate” level.

The Cal Fire maps “are intended to drive local planning decisions, not insurance decisions,” California Department of Insurance officials stated.

Summit Valley

Phase 1 of Silverwood includes nearly 2,100 dwelling units consisting of homes, condos, and flats.

Silverwood will be constructed in nine phases over the next 15 to 20 years, Silverwood General Manager John Ohanian told the Daily Press.

The entire Silverwood project spans 9,366 acres and includes nearly 15,633 dwelling units.

During a soft opening of the Silverwood model homes, Ohanian told the Daily Press that developers took a “few extra steps” to address any potential fire issues, including working with the San Bernardino County Fire Protections District.

Ohanian said all Silverwood homes have sprinkles and fireproof fencing, and they have been constructed with plenty of adjacent clear space.

‘We built a temporary fire station on site already, so we have fire coverage right from the beginning,” Ohanian said. “We’ll build three fire stations on site ultimately. We’re also working with the county about building a wildland fire camp somewhere nearby.”

Ohanian said his group is concerned about insurance, however, they are confident that taking a proactive approach will address potential fire insurance issues.

Cal Fire maps

Cal Fire officials stated that the updated maps show 2007 to 2011 coverage compared to 2025. The coverage zones are based on several factors, including vegetation, fire history, terrain and weather.

The fire hazard severity zone maps are like flood zone maps, and they don’t evaluate risk, said Cal Fire.

Instead, the maps evaluate hazard, or the “physical conditions that create a likelihood and expected fire behavior over a 30 to 50-year period” which doesn’t account for efforts to prevent wildfires, such as home hardening, said Cal Fire.

Fire hazard severity zone maps are used for building standards and various property development standards, as well as future development, Cal Fire officials stated.

“These maps were created so that public officials, such as board of supervisors or city council members, can know where to apply mitigation measures to slow the rate of fire spread, thereby reducing the potential intensity of an uncontrolled fire that threatened to destroy life, property and natural resources in the Fire Hazard Severity Zone,” said Cal Fire.

What about fire insurance?

The California Department of Insurance, led by Commissioner Ricardo Lara, explained how the updated Cal Fire maps affect insurance availability and affordability.

Under Lara’s new regulation finalized in October 2022, insurance companies must provide discounts for wildfire safety actions such as community mitigation and home-hardening, which Cal Fire maps do not assess.

In addition, insurance companies are already using risk analysis tools and models that go beyond Cal Fire’s proposed maps in determining what properties they will underwrite.

Lara’s new wildfire safety regulation will help increase access to insurance by promoting wildfire safety across the state, state officials stated.

“Reducing wildfire risks throughout the state is the primary way we can make insurance more available and affordable, and our regulation is a major step towards that goal,” the department stated. “CAL FIRE’s maps support that goal through improving public education about hazard and the need for safety preparation.”

The department of insurance said the maps will benefit the public via education about where current wildfire hazards exist, which is essential to reducing the threat to local communities and maintaining access to available and affordable insurance.

“When communities know and understand their risks, they can plan and prepare,” the state said. “In addition, the Department’s first-ever report on climate insurance recommended updated wildfire hazard mapping to improve public safety.”

State officials also addressed insurance questions by homeowner’s whose zone changed from high hazard to very high hazard,

“For many years, insurance companies have been using alternate wildfire risk tools for determining where they will write and renew policies, and how much premium to charge a policyholder, not the Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps,” state officials stated. “Therefore, a change in designation on the maps for a single homeowner is unlikely to affect their insurance.”

More accurate risk information enables homeowners and communities to reduce their wildfire risks, and Lara’s new wildfire mitigation regulation clarifies what actions you should take to reduce wildfire risks, the department explained.

“Once that regulation is fully implemented, if a homeowner or business owner takes those risk mitigation actions, they will be able to see a discount in their insurance premium,” state officials shared.

For questions about insurance, visit insurance.ca.gov, or call 800-927-4357.

Series of maps

The updated Cal Fire maps were ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom in February following the string of wildfires that struck Los Angeles and Ventura counties the month prior, including the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires.

Cal Fire released the fire maps in installments over the past six weeks, beginning with counties in the state’s far north and ending today with everything inland south of the Owens Valley, Cal Matters reported.

The maps only cover cities and towns where local fire departments are responsible for managing wildfires. The parts of the state where Cal Fire is in charge were remapped in late 2022 and also depicted a spike in hazard zones.

Federal lands, which account for about 45% of all the land in California, are not included in either set of maps.

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on X @DP_ReneDeLaCruz