Fire-hazard severity zones 2024 SRA and 2025 LRA: what changed and how to cite each map
The short answer
California’s current State Responsibility Area fire-hazard severity zone data took effect on April 1, 2024. The Office of the State Fire Marshal released Local Responsibility Area recommendations in four phases during February and March 2025. Those facts do not create one statewide answer for every project: the Office of the State Fire Marshal directs practitioners to contact the local jurisdiction for a specific LRA area, and Government Code section 51179 assigns local agencies an ordinance role. A CEQA screen should record the responsibility area, map/recommendation date, local source checked, and any remaining gap.
Why this update belongs in the source record
Wildfire screening often begins with a map. That is useful, but a map result does not answer every Appendix G question. The Appendix G wildfire section applies where a project is located in or near state responsibility areas or lands classified as very high fire hazard severity zones. It then asks about emergency response or evacuation plans, whether the project could exacerbate wildfire risks, associated infrastructure, and post-fire flooding or landslide risks. The CEQA Appendix G checklist is the source for the questions.
The working problem is therefore not “find a fire map.” It is “show which map or recommendation was checked, whether local designation needs confirmation, and which project facts still need review.” That record reduces the chance that an SRA map date, LRA recommendation, and local ordinance are collapsed into one unsupported conclusion.
Dated change record
| Record | What the Office of the State Fire Marshal publishes | Date to retain | Screening implication |
|---|---|---|---|
| State Responsibility Area FHSZ data | The Office states that it completed SRA mapping at the end of 2023 and that the SRA FHSZ data took effect on April 1, 2024. | effective 2024-04-01 |
Record the SRA data source, effective date, lookup date, and project/location relationship. Do not treat the map alone as the complete wildfire analysis. |
| Local Responsibility Area recommendations, phase 1 | LRA FHSZ maps/recommendations released by the Office. | released 2025-02-10 |
Identify the local jurisdiction and confirm the local designation/source before treating the recommendation as the applicable local record. |
| Local Responsibility Area recommendations, phase 2 | LRA FHSZ maps/recommendations released by the Office. | released 2025-02-24 |
Same. |
| Local Responsibility Area recommendations, phase 3 | LRA FHSZ maps/recommendations released by the Office. | released 2025-03-10 |
Same. |
| Local Responsibility Area recommendations, phase 4 | LRA FHSZ maps/recommendations released by the Office. | released 2025-03-24 |
Same. |
The dates above come from the Office of the State Fire Marshal FHSZ page, accessed 2026-09-08. Recheck that page and the relevant local agency source before using this table in a project record.
The local step is not optional context
Section 51179 states that a local agency shall designate moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones by ordinance within 120 days after receiving State Fire Marshal recommendations under section 51178. It also describes circumstances in which the local agency may include additional areas and says it may not decrease a State Fire Marshal severity level. The current statute, not this summary, controls the specific requirement and date.
For a project in an LRA, retain the current local jurisdiction source with the Office’s published recommendation. The local source may be an ordinance, adopted map, planning/fire department page, or another official record that identifies the applicable designation. If the local source has not been verified, say local designation not verified or not determinable from the queried sources. Do not fill the gap by treating an SRA map as LRA coverage.
What an FHSZ source record should show
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Project location | The location input, its normalization/geocoding status, and the project footprint or area used for review. |
| Responsibility area | Whether the record concerns SRA, LRA, or cannot be determined from the cited source. |
| Published source | Office/local publisher, exact map/viewer/ordinance title, stable URL or identifier, and publisher date/effective date where shown. |
| Retrieval | Access or query date, plus the configured matching/spatial method if a tool generated the result. |
| Returned status | The exact zone/recommendation/ordinance result, or no result returned, local designation not verified, or source unavailable. |
| Project review boundary | What remains: proximity/“near” analysis, project design, slope/wind/fuels, emergency and evacuation plans, infrastructure, post-fire conditions, and agency/specialist review as applicable. |
A source record is useful because it preserves what was actually checked. It does not determine whether the project is “near” an area, which Appendix G questions apply, whether an impact is significant, or what mitigation is appropriate.
How the 2024/2025 dates fit Appendix G
The 2024 SRA effective date and 2025 LRA release dates are source-version facts. Appendix G is a project review framework. Keep both in the record, but do not use a publication date as a shortcut for the CEQA conclusion.
For example, an FHSZ result can support the first question an analyst needs to ask: which published map or recommendation applies to the location? It cannot by itself resolve the project’s relationship to an adopted emergency response or evacuation plan, wildfire-risk effects from project design, infrastructure effects, or post-fire runoff and slope-stability questions. Read the full Appendix G wildfire section and the relevant lead-agency procedures for the project.
What to review next
- Identify whether the source record is SRA, LRA, or incomplete.
- For an LRA location, retain the relevant local-agency source and its adoption/designation status.
- Read the cited Appendix G questions against the project footprint and project characteristics.
- Identify the emergency/evacuation, infrastructure, slope, drainage, and other project facts that require current source, agency, or specialist review.
- Record unresolved coverage as unresolved. A precise
not determinablestate is more useful than a map-derived assumption.
Sources and update record
- California Office of the State Fire Marshal — Fire Hazard Severity Zones — SRA data effective April 1, 2024; LRA phase releases identified on page; accessed 2026-09-08.
- California Legislature — Government Code section 51179 — accessed 2026-09-08.
- California Natural Resources Agency — CEQA Appendix G: Environmental Checklist Form — accessed 2026-09-08. Confirm the current applicable Guidelines text and lead-agency procedure before relying on any checklist treatment.
Update trigger: revise this page when the Office changes its FHSZ source materials, a cited local source changes, or an applicable statute/regulation changes. Keep the prior dated entry where it explains a source change; correct a factual error visibly.