The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday, July 22, to adopt new fire zones that leave out at least half of Altadena neighborhoods demolished in the Jan. 7 Eaton fire.

That means an estimated 60% of residents who lost their homes in January’s firestorms won’t be required to rebuild to the highest fire-safety standards contained in California’s building code.

Those homeowners also won’t be required to undergo annual brush inspections or, if necessary, clear their property of flammable debris.

None of the four supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting addressed a South Carolina insurance research institute’s recommendation that fire zones be expanded to include all of the Eaton fire footprint. Supervisor Lindsey Horvath was absent.

See also: Altadena rebuilding should meet tougher building codes, institute argues

“It’s reasonable to assume that at some point in the future, once the community is rebuilt and time has gone by, that there is the potential that a Eaton-type fire could burn well into Altadena again,” said Steve Hawks, wildfire director for the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.

“Those homes need to be ready to withstand that type of event at some point in the future,” Hawks said.

At issue were the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s latest fire hazard maps, which draw new lines designating moderate, high and very-high fire-risk areas.

Cities and counties throughout Southern California were required to approve an ordinance by Tuesday adopting state fire hazard designations as their own.

While local governments can’t reduce the size of Cal Fire’s hazard designations, they can increase them.

See also: What is ‘home hardening’? Fire-resistant walls, roofs, windows and landscaping

Homes and businesses in Cal Fire’s very-high fire zones are required to include the most stringent home-hardening measures when rebuilding, meeting standards included in the state’s wildfire building code, or Chapter 7A.

New construction in high fire zones will have to comply with the wildfire building code after Jan. 1, 2026.

That means having fire-resistant roofs and rain gutters, outer walls capable of withstanding heat and flames for up to an hour, double-pane windows with tempered, shatter-resistant glass and ember-resistant attic and garage vents.

See also:

• Southern California fire danger zones increase 76% in new maps
• New fire maps put nearly 4 million Californians in hazardous zones

The county’s vote won’t affect homes burned in the Palisades fire. Both Pacific Palisades, which is part of the city of Los Angeles, and the unincorporated Sunset Mesa neighborhood are included in very-high fire zones in both the old and new Cal Fire maps. Homes in those communities must comply with the wildfire building code when rebuilding.

In discussion before the vote, board members expressed more concern about the potential hardship on low-income households that must pay the annual $151 brush-inspection fee plus the cost of brush clearance.

Cal Fire last released fire hazard maps in 2011. Those maps designated just three to six blocks along Altadena’s northern edge as being in a “very-high fire hazard severity zone.”

The new state maps extend fire zones at least seven to eight blocks further south. However, the Eaton fire penetrated 18-28 blocks into the community, so much of the Altadena burn area remains outside the new fire hazard zones.

More than 3,500 Altadena homes that burned, or 60% of those destroyed in the Eaton fire, are outside of Cal Fire’s fire hazard zones, the insurance institute estimated.

Hawks said the added cost of meeting the state’s wildfire building code is just a fraction of the overall price tag for reconstruction. It’s also most cost-effective to include home-hardening during the rebuilding process, he said.

Altadena residents attending Tuesday’s meeting on another matter were mixed on whether home-hardening requirements should be mandatory for the entire Eaton footprint.

“My home was built in 1912. There’s never been any fire that’s ever gotten in that area,” said Ginger Loesch, an Altadena resident who lives less than 1,000 feet from homes that burned. “It’s hard to imagine (wildfires are) going to be a regular occurrence.”

But Donna Burdick, who lives just north of Pasadena, thought making home-hardening mandatory for the entire Eaton burn area might be prudent.

“It’s not a good thing not to build (homes) so this doesn’t happen again,” Burdick said. “They should do something. Otherwise, the same thing is going to happen, and we’re going to lose everything.”

Karen Mateer, another resident just north of Pasadena, said mandatory home hardening “is going to be a necessary evil at this point.”

The L.A. County Fire Department recommended that supervisors adopt state fire maps as is, without including all of the Eaton fire footprint.

“We rely on the expertise of the state for analysis and identification of  the fire hazard severity zones,” county fire Communications Manager Heidi Oliver said in an email.

Nonetheless, the department is studying the possibility of extending brush inspection and “defensible space” requirements to homes and businesses in high and moderate fire zones.