
More than 2 million homes in California—about 15 percent of all housing units in the state—have high to extreme risk of wildfire damage, according to a Sacramento Bee report that cites insurance data provider Verisk Analytics. In seven California counties, mostly in the northern, inland parts of that state, "more than two-thirds of all homes were in jeopardy," the report said.
The newspaper continued:
Verisk Analytics used three factors to determine risk, including how close a property is to forests, shrubs and trees; whether it is near hilly or mountainous terrain; and if it is hard to reach and isolated. More than 500,000 acres burned last year which included the Tubbs fire in Sonoma County that eliminated more than 5,600 structures and took 22 lives.
In the case of the northern counties, the risk will be higher because homes there often dispersed at the edge of a wildland area, said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, a Eureka-based fire adviser for the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “Those areas that you mentioned are areas that have a lot of homes mixed into the wildland-urban interface—areas where there are a lot of homes that are edgy and in the forest and have a lot of fuel," she told the newspaper.
The Bee's report also includes an interactive map showing how many houses in each county are in danger and those house's share of the county's entire housing stock.
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