Start with the fire department. City of Santa Barbara Fire covers city limits. Santa Barbara County Fire covers most unincorporated land except Montecito FPD and Carpinteria-Summerland FPD. Statewide Zone 0 is Proposed — not in force. County inspections since June 1, 2026 are local defensible-space / hazard-abatement practice, not California Zone 0 in force.
Enter your address to check it against the CAL FIRE Fire Hazard Severity Zone map. City of Santa Barbara Fire covers city limits; County Fire covers most unincorporated land except independent districts. County-level overlays take precedence over the statewide map where one applies.
The county's record
Santa Barbara's defining modern wildfire is its own. In May 2009 the Jesusita Fire came down out of the front country into the city's foothill neighborhoods: 8,733 acres, 80 homes destroyed along with 79 outbuildings and a commercial building, 15 more homes damaged, and somewhere between 30,000 and 35,000 people evacuated as Mission Canyon and the Rattlesnake Canyon area emptied out.
The Sundowner winds that drove it are this coast's signature fire weather, the same pattern that pushed the 2008 Tea Fire into the city's eastern foothills a few months earlier. Those two seasons drew the line the 2025 hazard maps still trace: where the front country meets the streets, the first five feet at each house is where the county's fire story gets personal. The full record is here; each community page carries only its own verified chapter.
The county map
The foothill front country, where the Jesusita Fire drew the line, and western Goleta's confirmed zones.
The Refugio and El Capitan corridor, with its own confirmed anchors: the Sherpa Fire (2016) and the Gaviota Fire (2004).
Confirmed Very High zones in and around three communities, each told without an invented fire story.
Real foothill geography and its own independent fire district; current severity tier honestly caveated rather than asserted.
Santa Maria's first-ever state hazard designation is Moderate, not Very High, and we say exactly that.
What must I do?
The first five feet is the highest-leverage prevention: combustible fences and gates touching the house, bark mulch, woody shrubs, and firewood in that ring. Combustible fences and gates touching the house, bark mulch against the foundation, woody shrubs under windows, firewood on the deck. Sundowner-driven ember fires are exactly the mechanism Zone 0 interrupts. Read the full requirements, or start with the two most common projects: fences and gates and landscaping.
Who enforces it?
Santa Barbara County splits its fire authority more ways than most. The cities of Santa Barbara, Lompoc, and Santa Maria each run their own independent municipal departments (Santa Barbara's dates to 1881). The Santa Barbara County Fire Department serves Goleta under contract and the unincorporated communities directly, and it also holds a State Responsibility Area contract with CAL FIRE for backcountry wildland duties. Carpinteria and Summerland answer to the Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Protection District, an independent special district that is neither a city department nor county fire. Your community's page names yours, because the local authority is the AHJ, and statewide Zone 0 is Proposed — not in force.
Questions
No. As of September 19, 2026 statewide Zone 0 is Proposed — not in force. Existing defensible space still applies in Very High areas, including Santa Barbara city's foothill neighborhoods, western Goleta, the Gaviota Coast, and confirmed zones around Lompoc, Vandenberg Village, and Casmalia. Santa Maria carries only two Moderate zones. The first five feet is Recommended now. Check the parcel and the fire department.
City of Santa Barbara Fire, Lompoc Fire, and Santa Maria Fire are independent municipal departments. County Fire serves Goleta under contract and most unincorporated land, except Montecito FPD and Carpinteria-Summerland FPD. Each community page names the AHJ.
County Fire has been running defensible-space / hazard-abatement inspections since June 1, 2026 that include the first five feet. That is local practice, not California Zone 0 in force. Statewide Zone 0 is Proposed — not in force.
Submit your address and we will follow up about which local rules apply to your parcel, what your fire authority will look for, and what an inspection would document.
Request an inspectionPrefer to talk? Call (805) 567-8430 Calls are answered by an automated AI assistant and may be recorded and transcribed.