The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a)More than 2,000,000 California households, or approximately one in four residential structures in California, are located within or near “high” or “very high” fire hazard severity zones. These households are particularly vulnerable to increasingly catastrophic wildfires that pose urgent threats to lives, property, and resources in California.
(b)The state has invested nearly three billion dollars ($3,000,000,000) since the Budget Act of 2019 into programs and projects to improve forest health and resilience, create fuel breaks, harden homes and communities, and build resilient lifeline infrastructure to withstand wildfire disasters when they
do occur.
(c)Chapter 391 of the Statutes of 2019, which created the California Wi
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The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a)
More than 2,000,000 California households, or approximately one in four residential structures in California, are located within or near “high” or “very high” fire hazard severity zones. These households are particularly vulnerable to increasingly catastrophic wildfires that pose urgent threats to lives, property, and resources in California.
(b)
The state has invested nearly three billion dollars ($3,000,000,000) since the Budget Act of 2019 into programs and projects to improve forest health and resilience, create fuel breaks, harden homes and communities, and build resilient lifeline infrastructure to withstand wildfire disasters when they
do occur.
(c)
Chapter 391 of the Statutes of 2019, which created the California Wildfire Mitigation Program jointly administered by the Office of Emergency Services and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, recognized that “California must develop statewide options to encourage cost-effective structure hardening to create fire-resistant homes, businesses, and public buildings within wildfire hazard areas and with a focus on vulnerable communities.”
(d)
State support for home hardening incentive programs is especially critical now. California residents are finding homeowners’ insurance in very high risk fire areas to be increasingly difficult and costly to obtain, if coverage is even available. The Department of Insurance determined that the majority of nonrenewals, refusals to insure, and increased premiums resulted from insurers’ use of wildfire risk models that do not
account for wildfire risk reduction or home hardening measures completed by the homeowner or community.
(e)
On September 21, 2023, Governor Newsom issued Executive Order No. N-13-23 asking the Insurance Commissioner to take “prompt regulatory action to strengthen and stabilize California’s marketplace for homeowners insurance and commercial property insurance,” including maintaining “the long-term availability of homeowners and commercial property insurance coverage.”
(f)
Regular review of and updates to the Department of Insurance’s Safer from Wildfires regulations will advance these goals. The Safer from Wildfires regulations incentivize homeowners to invest in specified wildfire risk reduction and home hardening measures by requiring admitted insurers to reflect and take into account these measures in their ratings plans. The voluntary home hardening measures included in the
Safer from Wildfires regulations provide a higher level of fire protection than what is otherwise required by state law and help contain the spread of wildfires, reduce property damage, save lives, and encourage insurance companies to remain committed to the California insurance market.
(g)
It is the intent of the Legislature to further incentivize homeowners to invest in demonstrably effective home hardening measures by requiring the Department of Insurance to periodically review its Safer from Wildfires regulations and consider whether or not to amend the regulations to include additional communitywide mitigation programs and building hardening measures, including use of specified noncombustible construction materials that are included by the Office of the State Fire Marshal on the Building Materials Listing. Noncombustible construction materials, as defined by the California Building Standards Code (Title 24 of the California Code of
Regulations), provide the highest level of fire safety among materials included on the Building Materials Listing because these materials do not ignite, even when exposed to high temperatures for extended periods of time. Use of noncombustible construction materials is an effective means of reducing fire-related property damage and the contribution of structures to the spread of wildfires.
(h)
The Building Materials Listing includes construction materials that have been tested and analyzed by a laboratory accredited by the Office of the State Fire Marshal to confirm the materials meet established performance and reliability features.