Wildfire season is no longer a few anxious months on California’s calendar—it’s a year-round reality that shapes land values, insurance costs, and building codes statewide. In 2023 alone, over 300,000 acres were burned in wildfires in California and homes at risk for extreme wildfires went to over 1.25 million in 2024.
AcreValue’s California Wildfires map layer brings that risk into sharp focus, giving you actionable data that allows you to make informed decisions.
What The Layer Shows
When you switch on California Wildfires, every red outline on the map represents a single, fully mapped wildfire perimeter. Click any outline and a pop-up reveals the incident record, including:
- Fire Name (e.g., TESLA): lets you match the perimeter to news headlines or CAL FIRE reports.
- Start Date (e.g., 2022-06-23): pinpoints seasonal ignition patterns tied to fuel dryness and wind.
- Containment Date (e.g., 2022-06-23): a same-day wrap-up hints at lighter damage; multi-week containment signals intense burns.
- Area (acres) (e.g., 551.78): tells you how much ground (and investment) the fire affected.
- Cause (e.g., Vehicle): distinguishes human-caused roadside sparks from lightning-driven wilderness burns.
Why Wildfire Incident Data Matters
Insurance & Lending
A home that narrowly escaped a 20,000-acre blaze last summer may face higher premiums—or require fire-hardening upgrades—before a lender will close.
Timber & Agriculture
Past burns change soil chemistry, water infiltration, and future fuel load. Orchard owners, ranchers, and foresters rely on acreage-burned data to decide where to replant, graze, or thin.
Development & Compliance
Counties often layer recent fire perimeters onto building-permit reviews to enforce stricter roofing, setback, or vegetation-management standards.
Community Preparedness
Fire history guides evacuation-route planning, fuels-reduction grants, and prescribed-burn programs that lower the odds of the next megafire.
How to Use the California Wildfires Map Layer on AcreValue
- Log into AcreValue: Ensure you're logged into your AcreValue account to access premium mapping features.
- Navigate to the Map: Go to the interactive map section of AcreValue.
- Open the California Wildfires Map Layer: Locate the California Wildfires Map Layer option in the map layers menu. Enable the overlay.
- Zoom and Click: Click any red outline to open the incident card with name, dates, acres, and cause.
- Filter by Date: Use the layer’s filter in the map layers menu to show historical wildfire data. This narrows the noise when you’re studying recent high-impact events.
Turning Data into Decisions
Buyer’s Due Diligence
Shopping for a vineyard parcel in Sonoma? Filter for fires within the last ten years and overlay ownership. You might discover the block burned in 2020—information that affects soil health, trellis replacement costs, and crop insurance.
Forestry Planning
A timber manager reviews 15,000 acres of mixed-conifer. The map shows a 2018 lightning-sparked fire that left standing dead timber on 3,400 acres. That guides salvage cuts this year and replanting budgets for the next five.
Infrastructure Siting
A solar-farm developer compares two 200-acre sites. One saw a vehicle-caused grass fire in 2022; the other has no burns on record since 1998. Factoring in panel vulnerability and insurance, the developer chooses the lower-risk site.
Quick Tips
- Look for Repeat Offenders: Multiple fires in the same canyon hint at chronic wind or fuel-load issues.
- Watch the Containment Gap: A long gap between start and containment dates often signals steep terrain and heavy fuels—conditions likely to burn again.
- Compare Causes: Human-caused fires (cars, power lines) cluster near infrastructure, while lightning fires dominate high ridges. Tailor mitigation plans accordingly.
Conclusion
Wildfire isn’t a distant hazard for Californians—it’s a land-shaping force that rewrites risk profiles. AcreValue’s California Wildfires map layer distills each incident into concise, parcel-ready facts: name, dates, acres, cause. Try out the California Wildfires map layer and make informed decisions today!