A public map of California's wildfire records

California's fire hazard severity zones already shape everyday life. They decide how far back you must clear the brush, what a new house has to be built from, and what a seller has to disclose. Three other public records answer the questions that usually come next: the California Public Utilities Commission's map of where power lines are most likely to start a fire, which is where utilities work under stricter rules and where power shutoffs are most likely, CAL FIRE's record of fire perimeters reaching back to 1878, and the California Department of Insurance's figures on what homeowners pay in each ZIP code.

All of it is public, but it lives in official viewers, map services and shapefile downloads that assume you already know what a responsibility area is and which data package you want. Most people asking the question do not want a data portal. They want to know what applies to their street. This site is that: type an address, get the answers, and see how the boundaries run around it.

It was made for the community to use however it is useful.

• Homeowners

  Checking what their defensible space obligations are, or whether they are likely to face a power shutoff

• Buyers and renters

  Looking at a neighborhood, and at how often it has burned, before they commit to it

• Community groups

  Neighborhood associations and fire safe councils working out where to focus

• Journalists and students

  And anyone who simply wants to see the map without installing anything

Search an address or press Use my location, and the report opens with a summary of four findings: its fire hazard severity zone, whether it lies in the High Fire-Threat District, whether it has burned or how far away the nearest recorded fire was, and how what homeowners in its ZIP code pay for insurance compares with the California average. Each is then set out in full, with what it means for you and where the data came from, and the insurance finding adds how insurers rate the ZIP code's wildfire risk.

The first three findings also each have their own map. The shading is the same data, so a zone boundary, a fire-threat tier or an old fire's outline is visible before you look anything up.

Everything shown here comes from CAL FIRE, the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Department of Insurance, loaded unchanged. Nothing on this map is our own judgment about any piece of land, and the site is not an official source. It is a more convenient way to read public datasets, and it should be checked against them whenever the answer matters.

How the zones are modeled, which packages are loaded, and where the power line fire risk, fire history and home insurance findings come from are all set out on the Methodology page.

firezones.info is built and run independently as a public service. It is not affiliated with CAL FIRE, the Office of the State Fire Marshal, the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Department of Insurance, or any government agency.

The work behind it was given rather than sold. Assembling the data, building the search and keeping the map online is time and expense we put in so that Californians would have it, and it is meant to stay that way: made for the community, and left in its hands to use.

If something looks wrong where you live, or something here is unclear, we would like to hear about it. We are also glad to talk to anyone who wants to contribute to the site, partner on it, or put the data to work in something of their own. For any of that, contact us.

What this site does with what you type, and the limits of what it promises, are on the Privacy & terms page.