New Orange County cities included in updated wildfire severity hazard zones

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. (KABC) -- The California Office of the State Fire Marshal urges residents to remain vigilant of wildfires in their communities heading into summer.

CAL FIRE updated its Fire Hazard Severity Zones in March.

Chief Daniel Berlant said the zones designate the threat of wildfire in a neighborhood into three zones: moderate, high, and very high.

"There are a lot more people across Southern California that are now being designated in one of these zones," Berlant said.

The zones factor in things like topography, vegetation, and fire history.

"More areas are being defined in a fire hazard area because the change of the climates and the fire conditions, as well as this new requirement to map several levels of fire hazard that did not exist before," Berlant said.

In Orange County, five new cities -- Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Laguna Hills, and Placentia -- are now part of fire hazard severity zones.

"Most of those new cities have all three levels," Berlant said. "But, Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach do not have the very high."

"We really track the fire history here in Orange County," Orange County Fire Authority Captain Greg Barta said. "We monitor in live time all throughout the year what areas are at highest risk."

Anaheim Fire and Rescue Fire Marshal Lindsay Young said more parts of their city are under the updated fire hazard severity zones.

"Our acreage in the city of Anaheim will increase by about 300 acres if we take the maps as they came directly from CAL FIRE," Young said. "They sit in the east end of Anaheim within our Anaheim Hills area."

The zones are not used by insurance companies.

CAL FIRE said the maps ensure new homes are built to a standard that matches the level of hazard that exists in that area.

Anaheim Fire and Rescue and OCFA offer resources to residents where an expert can come out to your home and evaluate the risk of wildfires and find ways to improve your home.