Auburn's 2025 Fire Hazard Severity Zone Map and What It Means for Your Rental

From the 2007 map to Ordinance 25-02

Until 2025, Auburn worked from a fire hazard map adopted in 2007. Two things forced an update. CAL FIRE built a new statewide hazard model, and a 2021 law (SB 63) now requires cities to adopt all three zone levels, Moderate, High and Very High, where they once had to adopt only Very High.

The Office of the State Fire Marshal sent its local recommendations to cities in four phases between February and March 2025. Auburn's exhibit map is dated January 22, 2025. Under Government Code 51179, a city must designate the zones by ordinance within 120 days and may not lower any of them.

The City Council introduced Ordinance 25-02 on March 24, 2025 and adopted it on April 28, 2025, to take effect 30 days after adoption. The same night, Ordinance 25-03 amended the code so the Fire Chief designates zones going forward.

How the city fitted the state map to parcels

CAL FIRE's zone lines did not follow property lines, so a single lot could sit in two zones. The Auburn Fire Department and its mapping contractor applied two rules, described on the city's 2025 Fire Hazard Severity Zone Update page:

• A parcel spanning more than one zone took the highest zone present. A lot that was part High and part Very High became Very High.
• Isolated lower-rated "doughnut holes" surrounded by higher zones were raised to match their neighbors.
• The ordinance also designates some areas as Very High that the State Fire Marshal did not, based on a council finding that the Government Code 51182 clearance rules are needed there.
• The code now lets the Fire Chief raise a zone above the state's level but never lower it (AMC 100.68).

What each zone sets in motion for a rental

A zone is a label on a map until something you do runs into it. For a rental owner, the triggers fall into three groups: yearly upkeep, a sale, and new construction.

Keep in mind what the label measures. CAL FIRE's zones rate hazard, not risk: they model likely fire behavior over a 30 to 50-year period without counting home hardening or fuel reduction. Clearing your lot will not change your zone, but it does change how your house is likely to fare.

Upkeep comes first. Auburn Municipal Code 100.87 applies its fuel rules to anyone who owns or leases a home in any Fire Hazard Severity Zone, Moderate included. Who does that work under your lease is covered in who clears the brush.

A sale is where Very High matters most. AMC 100.71 requires a defensible-space inspection no more than six months before a Very High zone property changes hands, and state law adds seller disclosures for High and Very High homes. The steps are in selling an Auburn rental in a fire zone.

For building, AMC 100.70 designates the entire city as a wildland-urban interface fire area for applying the state building standards, so ignition-resistant construction rules reach new buildings citywide, not only inside mapped zones. Ask the city's building staff what applies to a remodel.

Leases are the quiet exception. The fire-zone disclosure laws are sale rules. The disclosure that every California lease needs under Government Code 8589.45 covers flood risk, the state's MyHazards website and a renters insurance notice, not your fire zone.

Zone 0: Auburn moved first, the state is still finishing

Zone 0 is the ember-resistant strip within 5 feet of a building. Auburn already requires it for new construction: since July 10, 2024, any new building or structure must have a five-foot radius clear of vegetation and combustible material, under AMC 100.87 subsection D. For existing homes the city encourages it but does not require it.

For a new building, that means no plants, grass or bark mulch in the strip, no combustible pots or boards, nothing combustible on or under a deck, and noncombustible material for the first five feet of any fence or gate that touches the structure.

Statewide, Public Resources Code 4291 directs the Board of Forestry to write Zone 0 regulations, first for new structures and, three years later, for existing ones. As of today the Board says it is still working with the Office of Administrative Law on a final review of the rule package, and it posted a Zone Zero Guidance Document in September 2026. Until that review ends and the rule is published, no statewide Zone 0 mandate applies to your existing rental.

Checking your parcel, inside and outside the city

Inside city limits, use the map on Auburn Fire's update page (a Google Earth view, with a short how-to video if the link gives you trouble). On the city's real estate inspection page, parcels in the red zone are the ones that need a pre-sale inspection. Compare against the 2007 map, also posted there, if you want to see what moved.

Outside city limits, the State Fire Marshal's zone page has an address search for the State Responsibility Area map in effect since April 1, 2024. A 2026 update is also open for public comment there. It follows the Board of Forestry's five-year review, which changed State Responsibility Area boundaries in 34 counties, and it has its own viewer for added areas. Incorporated cities such as Auburn are not part of the State Responsibility Area.

Questions about the local changes go to auburnfireinfo@auburn.ca.gov; questions about the state model go to FHSZinformation@fire.ca.gov. If your zone changed and you want a second look at the lease and the upkeep plan, schedule a free discovery call. For the yard work itself, start with our wildfire season prep post.