What's in Califonria's Zone Zero fire safety rules — and what they mean for SoCal residents

Southern California firefighters and emergency preparedness groups are praising new statewide rules for homes in fire-prone areas.

They’re also raising concerns about the burden they say will fall on homeowners.

The California Board of Forestry and Fire Prevention voted last week to adopt the rules after years of debate, delays and missed deadlines. They are the strictest rules in the country for home fire mitigation.

They will apply to almost 2 million homes across California in areas that CalFire designates as having some of the highest fire risk, defined as State Responsibility Areas and Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones.

That applies to large swaths of Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Zone Zero details

The rules regulate what can be within 5 feet of a home, an area known as Zone Zero. They prohibit any plants within at least the first foot from the home — or farther, depending on the size of a structure’s eaves. Then, within the first 5 feet, no combustible material is allowed, including dead leaves and branches, mulch, woodchips and firewood.

Other new rules ban wooden fences that are attached to houses and wooden sheds within Zone Zero. Local fire authorities will be responsible for enforcement and have some flexibility to tailor the rules to specific communities.

Once the rules are formally adopted next month, Californians with existing homes will have five years to comply. New construction projects will have to comply immediately.

A public comment period on the new rules is open until Sept. 2.

Tough, but necessary

Fire safety groups acknowledge the necessity of rules and the burdens they will likely place on property owners.

“We're a supporter of actions that help move the needle forward toward resiliency. That's what this does,” said Brent Woodworth, chief executive of the Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation, a leading advocacy group for disaster preparedness.

The organization also independently assesses homes for wildfire risk and resiliency at homeowners’ request, primarily in communities in and around the Santa Monica Mountains.

Woodworth sees the new rules as a reasonable approach to better protect homes and communities from disastrous blazes, especially after the devastation wrought by the Palisades and Eaton fires.

He hopes it will help create a culture in Southern California that embraces fire mitigation.

But he knows the new rules likely won’t be welcomed by everyone.

“ It's going to take a lot to convince people to do this,” Woodworth said. “But this is a pretty decent start to try to get this culture shift going.”

CalFire started the rule-making process in 2020, and some homeowners have been pushing back ever since. Some feel it’s an overreach of their property rights or may just not want to see their gardens changed. Others are worried about the financial burden of removing vegetation, trees or wooden fences.

“There was such shock in the community from folks about how much work and what it's going to cost them to do. This is a huge burden on many people,” said James Grasso, president of the Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness, a volunteer group serving Topanga, Malibu and surrounding areas.

Grasso said that’s particularly true in Topanga, where many homes are built in and around countless oak trees. He called for more incentives, grants or other financial assistance to help people cover mitigation work.

Overall, though, Grasso thinks the approved rules are a good compromise. The state originally proposed banning all vegetation within Zone Zero. He pointed to the gradual implementation timeline and the decision to allow some plants within 5 feet of homes.

He also hopes localized enforcement will allow for some flexibility that will accommodate Southern California communities' varied needs.

For firefighters, mitigation makes a difference

Local fire departments in charge of enforcing the new rules, and responsible for putting out fires once they start, emphasized the need for the changes.

Juan Huerta, a fire marshal with the Orange County Fire Authority, said less combustible material in Zone Zero helps keep blazes more contained and easier for firefighters to manage by making it harder for houses to catch fire.

A recent study from UC Berkeley found the more defensible space around a structure, the higher chance it has of surviving a fire.

 ”When you're talking about these embers that potentially ignite homes that much farther away, we don't necessarily always have the same resources in those areas,” Huerta said.  ”The goal is to help eliminate another variable.”

He urged homeowners to consider implementing other mitigation tools, too, including fire-resistant cladding for homes or mesh that prevents embers from entering vents.

He is sympathetic to peoples’ concerns over the changes, especially the costs, and wants to help the public to understand why the measures are necessary.

“ We will be working with the residents, providing as much education and outreach as we can to help everyone really understand what the requirements are, but also why it's important,” he said.

Huerta’s team is already inspecting properties in at-risk areas of Orange County.

If a home is non-compliant, they will issue a violation notice and follow up until the problem is resolved.