California Establishes a Wildfire Safety Floor - Local Governments Must Balance Safety with Flexibility

APCIA applauds approval of the nation's first statewide Zone 0 standard and urges communities to maintain consistent and verifiable standards

SACRAMENTO, CA - The following statement by the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) is in response to the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection vote to approve Zone 0 regulations. This statement can be attributed to Mark Sektnan, APCIA vice president, state government relations.

"The American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) applauds the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection for adopting the nation's first statewide Zone 0 standard. This regulation establishes an important minimum baseline for reducing wildfire risk around homes and represents meaningful progress in California's ongoing effort to improve community resilience and long-term insurability in wildfire-prone areas.

"The new regulation is an important starting point, but it should be viewed as a minimum standard, not the highest level of wildfire protection. As implementation moves forward, local governments will face a choice. They can maintain consistent, science-based protections that maximize ember resistance around homes, or they can pursue flexibility that weakens the effectiveness of the statewide standard. If local alternatives prioritize flexibility over maintaining a clear and consistent Zone 0 of ember resistance, communities may ultimately be placed at greater risk.

"Wildfire risk has increased dramatically across California and the West. We must adapt and take practical steps to live with wildfire. Decades of wildfire science show that the first five feet around a structure is one of the most important areas for preventing ember ignitions and reducing pathways that allow fire to reach homes.

"APCIA supports local innovation when it is backed by science and delivers equivalent or greater wildfire risk reduction. However, the value of a statewide baseline depends on consistency. Homeowners, communities, insurers, and policymakers all benefit from clear and predictable standards. Any local alternative should be technically justified, transparent, and capable of producing credible, verifiable information about mitigation measures completed at the individual parcel level. Consistent and verifiable approaches help ensure that mitigation efforts can be evaluated, trusted, and translated into meaningful reductions in wildfire risk.

"California's challenge now is to preserve the integrity of this statewide baseline while continuing to strengthen wildfire preparedness over time."