2025 LA Fires - A Reckoning
LA continues to play fast and loose with a state law intended to save lives, leading to chaotic evacuations and unnecessary deaths. A Lawsuit by the Hillside Federation and SAFRR aims to END the City’s pattern and practice of not enforcing State Minimum Fire Safe Regulations in very high fire hazard areas.
The lawsuit cites 75 permits, each with multiple state violations, approved in defiance of known risks on narrow, dead-end roads that are practically inaccessible to fire apparatus.
Tahoe Plan Sparks Lawsuits
Several Tahoe Basin conservation groups filed a lawsuit against Placer County demanding the preparation of a legally required, full environmental impact review, addressing regional public safety impacts associated with amendments to the Tahoe Basin Area Plan (TBAP). This community-based action joins an earlier citizen lawsuit against Washoe County, Nevada.
The Tahoe Basin’s environmental threats have changed in the last decade – with wind-driven wildfires growing in both intensity and frequency. The lawsuit disputes Placer County’s addendum to a 2016 environmental review, which relied on a decade-old development baseline, with underestimated evacuation times. A core issue is that the inadequate impact assessment did not incorporate substantive new evidence from citizen-funded and government commissioned and community-funded technical studies and fire behavior models that forecast a regional evacuation crisis.
SAFRR’s VP Wins Leadership Award
On October 12, 2025, Wendy-Sue Rosen accepted the Assembly District 51 Community Excellence Award for Environmental Protection and Climate Action .
“Our honorees embody the California we're building together - safe, inclusive, resilient and filled with opportunity. Each of our awardees embodies, in their own way, what California can be: a state led by people who, in times of crisis, rise to serve their communities with compassion, courage and heart.” - Assembly Member Rick Chavez Zbur (D 51 - Hollywood) -
Housing Policy Sets Localities Up to Fail
Current California housing policy, under state mandated Regional Housing Numbers Allocations (RHNA), is resulting in a 99% failure rate for localities working in good faith to accommodate housing production – something is wrong!
The current policy is not solving the true crisis in housing - affordability. Despite penalties for localities and incentives for developers, since 2023 the private sector built 83% market-rate housing.
RHNA housing policy is not meeting the stated objectives and there are so many impediments to actual construction of housing that localities are being set up for failure.
The full article “RHNA - Summary of State Housing Numbers Allocation” and “CITATIONS for RHNA Housing Policy”, by Kalish, Amy, August 2025 are included under RHNA in Resources- Development Challenges.
Experts on Wildfire Catastrophic Models
Wildfire Catastrophic Models are not that difficult to understand, especially when explained by four companies that create state-of-the-art models. The Webinars listed in the Read More, explain best available scientific information and data related to wildfire.
These Webinars are part of the California Department of Insurance’s Sustainable Insurance Strategy. https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/180-climate-change/ This ambitious strategy is aimed at safeguarding the overall health of the insurance market, comprised of consumers, homeowners and business owners, while ensuring long-term sustainability.
LA Times Quotes SAFRR and Fire Experts
Although the community burn over risk by fast-moving fires is growing, many local jurisdictions do not have wildfire evacuation plans that meet State laws. Los Angeles is a case in point, as reported in the July 25, 2025 LA Times article, thoroughly researched by Noah Haggerty: (Source: PDF and LA Times Link)
Months after the Jan. 7 fires, L.A.’s evacuation plans remain untested. (PDF)
Marylee Guinon — president of the State Alliance for Firesafe Road Regulations – states that Los Angeles is only one of many cities or counties that are putting lives at risk through ignoring State-mandated evacuation planning for existing and new communities.
Community Demands Compliance - and Wins!
The Hillside Federation pre-litigation letter demanded that the City of Los Angeles comply with the “State Minimum Fire Safe Regulations” with regard to proposed development projects located in Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones (“VHFHSZ”). This advocacy effort was successful – in April the City Council unanimously denied the project.
CalFire Releases New LRA Maps
In 1st Q 2025, CalFire released new Fire Hazard Severity Zone Maps for the Local Responsibility Area (LRA). The new LRA maps include the “very high, high and moderate” hazard severity zones. Now, both the “High” and “Very High” zones are areas in the LRA where local jurisdictions must comply with the strictest fire-safety Chapter 7A building code and other regulations. The history of Fire Hazard Severity Zone mapping, and where to find your Local Responsibility Area (LRA) map is below.
LA Firestorms Among Most Devastating
Los Angeles 2025 firestorms rank among the deadliest (29 fatalities) and most destructive (16,200 structures) wildfires in California history, per the 2025 update to CalFire’s Wildfire History Database. The Eaton (Altadena) and Palisades catastrophic wildfires ignited during hurricane force Santa Ana winds. Insured losses are expected to exceed $20 billion.
Complexity of Wind-driven Wildfires
Experts weigh in on the complexity of wind-driven wildfires – policies need to include fire behavior modeling and structure resiliency standards. The 2025 Los Angeles fires demonstrated how changing weather patterns, hurricane winds, ember cast, and structure-to-structure fires drove the firestorms from the wildlands deep into urbanized areas. Read the LA Times science-based interviews with wildfire and building resiliency experts, Stephen Pyne and Jack Cohen, and with David Sapsis, CALFire’s fire modeling expert.
Meeting with CalFire Chief Bigelow
Three Coalition Leaders William Holmes, retired CalFire Northern Region Chief, SAFRR President and Planning Conservation League Executive Director met with CalFire Deputy Director Chief Frank Bigelow. SAFRR requested this meeting to discuss CalFire’s intentions with SB 610–legislation stopped by state-wide Coalitions in 2024–that would have jettisoned CalFire’s Fire Hazard Severity Zone Maps (relied upon for decades) and eliminated local jurisdictions’ legal authority to increase hazard levels in their own communities.
Residents Win CEQA Lawsuit
Orinda for Safe Emergency Evacuation (“OSEE”) won its lawsuit against the City of Orinda, Contra Costa County as related to certain significant adverse impacts from the proposed “Plan Orinda”development. In November, 2024, the City issued a Partially Revised EIR that addressed the identified deficiencies related to wildfire evacuation analysis.