Studies Verify Zone Zero Benefits
Two separate studies, a scientific study by UC Berkeley analyzing structure loss from fires before 2020, and the second by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (an insurance non-profit) who conducted on-the-ground investigations of the 2025 Eaton and Palisades burn zones, came to similar conclusions.
Despite different methodologies used to analyze structure to structure fires from 2017 to the present, both demonstrate risk-reduction benefits of implementing home hardening, defensible space and zone zero fire preventive measures.
READ MORE
Source: “Early adopters of Zone Zero fare better in L.A. County fire, insurance-backed investigation finds.” LA Times, Staff Writer: Noah Haggarty, December 10, 2025
Finding: “On properties where the majority of zone zero land was covered in vegetation and flammable materials, the fires destroyed 27% of homes; On properties with less than a quarter of zone zero covered [in flammable materials], only 9% were destroyed.”
The insurance non-profit has conducted several of these real-world studies over the past decade, and although a less rigorous methodology, UC Berkeley researchers note that on-the-ground analyses help inform lab research relative to the different pathways fire uses to enter a structure.
Study Findings - UC Berkeley: “One recent UC Berkeley study looked at five major California fires from 2017 to 2020. It found that, out of properties that took no precautions, only 20% survived. Meanwhile, those that cleared vegetation from Zone Zero had a survival rate of 37%, and those with comprehensive home hardening and defensible space had a survival rate of 48%.
Experts said the rules arrive at a critical moment. In the last decade, worsening wildfires in California have burned about 14 million acres and destroyed more than 60,000 homes and structures.”
Source: “State Approves Zone Zero fire-safe landscaping rules, reshaping yards for millions of Californians”, LA Times, Staff Writers Noah Haggarty and Haley Smith, August 19, 2026.