Public-data tools and research for California homeowners navigating Fire Hazard Severity Zones.
Understand your local fire-hazard designation, compare fence materials, and use current public license records to find C-13 contractors in your area.
Fence product research
Firewise follows DuraBond / COLORBOND® and MWF Solutions because both offer steel fence systems relevant to wildfire-conscious projects. We organize the product claims, limitations, and questions a homeowner should verify before selecting an independent contractor.
DuraBond
COLORBOND® steel fencing
DuraBond identifies itself as the official U.S. distributor of COLORBOND® steel fencing. Review the system construction, published fire-performance claims, colors, dimensions, warranty attribution, and the limits of the available certification evidence.
Galvanized steel systems
MWF Solutions
Eight named product lines
MWF Solutions publishes multiple galvanized-steel configurations and fire- and wind-test claims. Compare the all-steel and mixed-material variants, the cited test methods, available heights, and the questions to resolve with the manufacturer and contractor.
Firewise does not sell, install, certify, or rank these systems. Product and performance claims remain attributable to their manufacturer, supplier, or test source and should be verified for the exact proposed assembly before contracting.
The problem
Palisades and Eaton, surviving houses: 52% of the attached fences were combustible.† County-weighted, that is 262,000 homes — 248 miles of span at the wall.* Two fifths of those homes are in Los Angeles County. There is no statewide fence deadline. San Diego’s is February 28, 2029. Notes sit at the bottom of this page.
County-weighted. Cross-check 268,590 flat statewide. 3% apart.
1,308,905 ft. 248 miles. Five feet, one attachment per house.
510,405 ft. Two fifths of the statewide estimate.
Feb 28. Year 3 full compliance. Adopted. Not an assumption.
The scope
3,228,949 people. 8.17% of California. Los Angeles County has 940,226 of them. San Diego has 559,512. Riverside 377,690. Orange 215,027. Ventura 197,322. San Bernardino 171,760.
Most of those people live in Southern California. Farther north, Very High covers most of the county: Plumas 78.6%. Nevada 74.5%. Siskiyou 65.3%. Amador 57.6%. Lake 57.4%.
Counties where the majority of residents live in a VHFHSZ
Plumas
15,564 78.6%
Nevada
76,199 74.5%
Siskiyou
28,803 65.3%
Amador
23,330 57.6%
Lake
39,156 57.4%
The Challenge
Zone 0 refers to the 0–5 feet from exterior walls, decks, and attachments of buildings and structures inside of a FHSZ.
Combustible fence at the house is not landscaping. It is an attachment the rule names, and the replacement is a five-foot noncombustible span — not a new fence line.
Board of Forestry approved the final draft August 19, 2026. Although no statewide requirement is in effect yet, some counties and cities already have their own ordinances in effect. In LRA cities the rule as written attaches to Very High parcels.
The fence-specific text
Combustible fences and gates shall not be attached to an Occupied Structure. All fences and gates that are attached to an Occupied Structure, or come within one (1) foot of contact with an Occupied Structure, shall have a five (5) foot Noncombustible span from the point of attachment or the point closest to the Occupied Structure. After the effective date of this regulation, no new Combustible fences or gates (whether attached or parallel to the Occupied Structure) are permitted within five (5) feet of an Occupied Structure.
August 19, 2026 text from Title 14 CCR, LRA §1298.04(b).‡
The Next Step
Firewise publishes the source-backed information homeowners need to understand Fire Hazard Severity Zones and the fence provisions being considered or adopted in their jurisdiction.
Check Your Home uses current public CSLB records and explicit, reproducible rules to show a small set of licensed C-13 fence contractors near the location a homeowner provides.
Homeowners will be able to request an introduction, compare responses, and choose whether to contract directly with an independent contractor.
Sources and notes
Fine print for the figures on this page. CAL FIRE DINS records a fence as Combustible, Non Combustible, No Fence, or Unknown. It does not name wood, chain-link, or masonry.
* 1.3 million feet is the county-weighted estimate: 261,781 homes in Very High with a combustible fence attached, of 975,631 detached homes total, × 5 ft = 1,308,905 ft, 248 miles. “Replaced” means the five-foot non-combustible span at the house, not a new fence line. “As soon as 2030” assumes an effective date in 2027 and the LRA default of three years (CCR § 1298.04(c)(4)). Two thirds of that footage — 877,525 ft — is in the Local Responsibility Area on the three-year clock. The remaining 431,380 ft is SRA, where five years is the default and three the floor (§ 1299.03(e)(4)). The Board has not set that date. New construction would comply on the effective date itself. February 28, 2029 is not an assumption: City of San Diego, Zone 0 Guidelines for Existing Structures, Rev. 4/22/2026, §5.1 Year 3 — “This includes replacing fences and gates that do not comply.” Year 1 (Feb 28, 2027) is maintenance only. Flat statewide cross-check: 268,590 homes, 3% away. 70.8% of the stock sits under a county-measured DINS rate (n ≥ 100 surviving houses). Applying Palisades/Eaton 43.3% statewide is not supported: Riverside 10.9%, Orange 15.6%, Los Angeles 42.2%. Detached count is Census 2020 housing units × ACS 2020–2024 (B25024) share. DINS is a wildfire-exposed sample and records one fence flag per structure. No San Diego home-count or footage figure until the city’s map is reconciled with the state layer. Retrieved 2026-08-14. Estimate file. Data repo. San Diego guidelines.
† Palisades Fire: 6,845 structures destroyed (CAL FIRE incident page). Eaton Fire: 9,419 structures destroyed. Combined 16,264. CAL FIRE DINS, retrieved 2026-08-14. 82.7% of surviving Palisades/Eaton single-family houses had a fence attached. That 82.7% is any attached fence. DINS labels the field Combustible, Non Combustible, No Fence, or Unknown. It does not name wood, chain-link, vinyl, or masonry. Of those attached fences, 52.3% were combustible — 43.3% of surviving houses had a combustible fence attached. Orange County fences heavily in block wall and vinyl; Sonoma fences in wood. The 1.3 million feet uses the combustible-and-attached rate, county-weighted, not the undifferentiated four-out-of-five figure. Do not read surviving houses with a fence as evidence that fences protect houses. DINS cannot support a causal claim about attached fences and structure loss: combustible fence evidence often burns with the house and is logged as No Fence or Unknown. Attachment file. Methodology.
Detached homes in Very High. 72.5% of Very High housing units are detached single-family, against 57.1% statewide. Census 2020 housing units, with detached single-family estimated from each block group’s ACS 2020–2024 (B25024) share. 129 block groups (648 units) have no ACS share and contribute zero. Retrieved 2026-08-14. Zone 0 data repo.
Housing units in Very High. 2020 census count, same block-group assignment as the population file. 21.8% of SRA Very High units are vacant or seasonal, against 6.4% statewide — mountain second-home stock. A cabin nobody is in this month has the same fence. Retrieved 2026-08-14. Zone 0 data repo.
People in Very High. 8.17% of California. Census 2020 block-group centers of population against the CAL FIRE maps. 25,607 block groups; assigned populations sum to 39,538,223, the 2020 state count exactly. Retrieved 2026-08-14. Zone 0 data repo.
Combustible fence attached. County-weighted: 261,781 homes, 1,308,905 feet, 248 miles. Flat statewide cross-check: 268,590. 70.8% of Very High detached homes sit under a county-measured DINS rate. Los Angeles alone is 102,081 homes. This is the combustible share, not every attached fence. Retrieved 2026-08-14. Zone 0 data repo.
Fence deadline. Board of Forestry final draft, approved August 19, 2026, pending OAL: fence clauses (8) and (9) are Phase 2. LRA existing structures, 3–5 years after the effective date on a local timeline (§ 1298.04(c)(4)). SRA, within 5 years, not less than 3 (§ 1299.03(e)(4)). The effective date does not exist. The homepage’s “as soon as 2030” is a scenario: 2027 effective date + the LRA three-year default. Two thirds of the 1.3 million feet — 877,525 ft — sits in LRA on that three-year clock; 431,380 ft is SRA, where five years is the default. New construction complies on the effective date itself. Zone 0 guide.
First local fence date. City of San Diego, Zone 0 Guidelines for Existing Structures, Rev. 4/22/2026, §5.1 Year 3: “This includes replacing fences and gates that do not comply.” §4.6 requires a 5-foot non-combustible span where a fence attaches. Year 1 (Feb 28, 2027) is maintenance only — quoting 2027 for a fence obligation is wrong. New construction already live from Feb 28, 2026. No San Diego home-count or footage until the city’s map is reconciled with the state layer. San Diego guidelines PDF.
Zone 0 fence text. August 19, 2026 text from Title 14 CCR, LRA §1298.04(b). The SRA track at §1299.03(d) is not identical: it stays one paragraph and does not carry the parallel-fence clause. Full citations live on the Zone 0 guide.