The Bates/SRA Brush report has been available on the RiskMeter Online for a couple of years.

In 1993, as a result of the Oakland Hills Fire in which 3,403 homes were lost (780 in the first hour), the Bates Bill No. 337 was enacted.  This requires local jurisdictions to identify and establish Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones (VHFHSZ).  The VHFHSZ is comprised of mostly hill and mountainous regions of the City of Los Angeles.

CDS added these maps years ago to RiskMeter, and they were basically areas designated as brush areas by the state.  Unfortunately, these maps were not very accurate or complete.  They were political in nature (being added to the list would make getting insurance or selling a house more difficult, so people didn't want to be on the list), and there was no process to update the maps, so they quickly became out of date.  However, these maps were the standard used by the state, especially with regards to CA Real Estate Disclosure Laws.  In 2003 we created the CDS Wildfire Model to solve these problems.  The CDS Model was much more comprehensive, and quickly became the standard for companies writing in CA; it now covers the entire Western US and FL, and is updated regularly.

In 2009 the state of CA actually adopted the law in Govt Codes 51175-51189.  In these actions, they had the state Fire Marshall create a state-wide fire model.  Each county has then to review the maps, makes changes, open them for public comment and then adopt them as official maps.  Official maps have been adopted by some counties, and in other areas preliminary maps have been released.  In the fire model, the State ranks areas to Fire Risk (FHSZ), as moderate, high and very high.  In areas where the ranking is Very High, insurers are not allowed to require more than 100' of brush clearance.  So obviously, insurers should be very concerned about structures located within Very High Brush Zones. The actual law is CA Govt Code 51182.  We are not attorneys, so please consult with an expert on the exact interpretations of the law.

Users of RiskMeter will now be able to identify these areas using the Bates/SRA Brush report.  We can also run your existing policies in batch to determine how many of your existing policies fall into one of these areas.

Still today, the CDS Wildfire model is continually updated, and we are working on additional features to improve this report.  We recommend that our clients use the Bates/SRA Report to identify Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones but continue to use the CDS Wildfire Model for coverage eligibility decisions.  Here are a few reasons why:

• The CA State Fire Marshall does not recommend their model to be used for insurance purposes
• The mapping units (size of grid) is very large; the smallest unit is 20 acres (about 925' on each side); the largest is 200 acres
• The State Fire Hazard Severity Zones have no published updating plan or calendar
• The State's Model takes into account many factors that may not be applicable to your underwriting guidelines - this is not a simple distance calculation to the brush fire hazards.

For more information, please contact Daniel Munson, Founder, RiskMeter Online at 617.737.4444 or Email