Five years ago, California was hanging from the campfire, the most deadly forest fire of the country in a century. The state deputies responded by compulsory the requirements of the new building to protect homes in high -risk areas, but until the deadline of January 2025, the department responsible for the rules had not written them. Then, the areas of Los Angeles rose in the flames, killed dozens of people and destroyed thousands of structures.
In early February, California’s democratic governor Gavin Newsom ordered the State Forestry and Fire Prevention Board, known as Cal Fire, to finish delayed arrangements for a long time. Newsom’s executive order instructed the State Fire Marshal office to create updated fire hazard maps that have not been rediscovered for areas managed by local governments since 2011. These maps gave information where the most strict fire safety arrangements will be placed in one of the possibility of three -storey forest fire: moderate, high and very high.
On Monday, Cal Fire released the latest installment of these updated Fire Danger Violence Zone MapsThis shows 5.1 million people – 1 out of 8 California – Live in two most dangerous regions. It is a reflection of the impact of climate change on the state that a brushed landscape and intense dry air can create conditions for deadly firestorms even in winter.
Uz We live in a new reality of extremism, ”Newsom said in a statement explaining the order. “Believe in science and your own damn eyes: Nature changes our way of life and we must continue to adapt to these changes.”
Cal Fire’s renewed maps have increased greatly in areas that are accepted as dangerous: “high” and “very high” hazard zones have increased by 168 percent since 2011. The reason for this is that the calculation power has improved more detailed data maps about weather conditions, vegetation and fire behavior in the last 14 years.
“When compared to the latest model, we can determine how long the embers will travel and how much will it mobilize,” Cal Fire’s Deputy Director of Preparation and Miziming the Forest Fire Forest Fire Preparation and Mizimation of the community. He said another implicit change in the data is a changing climate.
Daniel Swain, a climatic scientist at the University of California, said, “The most extremely dry periods, even in places that are rarely dry for fires, it takes more dry and longer,” he said. As these intense drought periods overlap with the windy ones, Swain says that the potential of disasters of the fire has increased. “Today’s risks extend to higher and deeper populated areas.”
Swain says that the effects of a warmer climate and more dehydrated atmosphere all over the world are felt, forest fires burn thousands of acres and kill dozens of people South Korea– JapanAnd Chile Last month. The flames also tear some parts North Carolina– FloridaAnd Oklahoma In recent weeks. Researchers from the University of Tasmania in Australia in 2024, the intensity and frequency and frequency of the most extreme forest fires in the world doubled In the last twenty years.
Other factors preparing to burn California include a phenomenon known as a phenomenon that it follows drought after years of fat -free rain, allowing the vegetation to grow abundantly before drying and provides more fuel for forest fires. “This is a worthless risk factor in a heated climate, Swain said, Swain said. “Last winter is about what happened to Los Angeles, which was the most dry start to break a record immediately after two years of wet winters.”
New maps also have larger areas of danger, because they contain two new categories: “medium” and “high” regions. Cal Fire’s “high” hazard zones will have to comply with new building rules such as fire resistant windows and siding. Those in a “very high” region will need to keep a 100 -meter circle around the property and keep it away from the brush and dead trees. New neighborhoods in this region will have to include more than one evacuation route, adequate water supply and established vegetation gaps that can prevent the spread of the fire.
“These maps are important for the new construction, including the houses burned in LA, especially in La fires, Greg said Gregory Pierce, a professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. Accordingly Reporting at Washington Post33 percent of the burned houses in Altadena, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, are located by January fires, now falls into “high” or “very high” hazard zones. Iz We should be able to take over some major reforms that we don’t want to do before, ”he said.
Although words are often used interchangeably, Bigelow said that the agency saw a significant difference between “danger” and “risk, and that the maps show only the levels of“ danger ”. The risk is something that can change quickly over time, as it enlarges a landlord’s vegetation. The dangers are determined according to long -term air and landscaping factors other than the control of the landlords. “These maps do not predict where the fires will be. He does not predict the size of fires, he says there is a high probability that there may be fire in one area,” he said. With the right home hardening steps, a very high fire danger says it is possible to live in the violence zone, but there is almost zero risk.
“No matter which region you are, start to take action in and around your house,” he said. “Anyone who lives near or around a firing area should not disappoint the protector.”
