Moraga fire officials outline fuel‑reduction projects and explain new "Zone 0" rules

Fire officials and town leaders on Wednesday described ongoing fuel‑reduction work, inspection priorities and the state’s new “Zone 0” requirement as part of an evening community meeting on emergency preparedness at Saint Mary’s College.

Fire Chief Jeff Isaacs said the Moraga‑Orinda Fire District (MOFD) has been maintaining two major projects that are intended to slow wildfire spread into town: the North Orinda shaded fuel break, completed in 2020, and the Tunnel/East Bay Hills fuel break, which runs from the Wilder community through the college toward Lafayette. "A fuel break is not going to stop a fire," Isaacs said. "A fuel break is something that we use to disrupt the fire pathway and to slow that fire down so we can get in there and take offensive or defensive actions."

Isaacs listed other district priorities this year: inspection of evacuation routes, continued availability of the district’s residential chipping program, prescribed fire projects to maintain fuel breaks, and outreach on the recent changes to fire hazard severity maps. He said MOFD inspection teams will start targeted neighborhood inspections on June 1 and that the district’s prevention staff will again focus on evacuation‑route inspections after a one‑year pause.

Deputy Fire Chief Lucas Lambert, who deployed with a Cal Fire incident management team to the January Southern California incidents, told residents the district’s lessons from Palisades and Eaton fires reinforce three priorities: home hardening, vegetation removal to reduce fuels, and rapid firefighting response where possible. "Home hardening to prepare your home to increase the chance of survival," Lambert said, "and removal of vegetation — reduction of fuels — and if we are lucky enough, we can interject firefighting resources to slow or contain the fire to the area of origin."

Isaacs and other MOFD staff described the state’s incoming Zone 0 regulation as a critical change. "Zone 0 has been law for several years," Isaacs said during the question‑and‑answer period. He explained that, as currently written by the legislature and in the Board of Forestry rule‑making process, Zone 0 is defined as the five feet from the exterior wall of a house or an attached deck and will apply to properties in the very high fire hazard severity zone beginning Jan. 1, 2026. He cautioned that the Board of Forestry is still finalizing regulatory details, including how "no combustible material" will be defined and enforced. "We are waiting for the board of forestry to tell us that in the rule making process," Isaacs said.

Isaacs said MOFD’s board of directors must decide whether to apply Zone 0 only to the state‑mapped very high hazard areas or to expand it to other parts of the district; he said he is "leaning toward increasing it" but stressed the need to work out inspection and enforcement procedures before final action. Residents were directed to the state fire marshal and CAL FIRE websites for the updated fire hazard severity maps and were encouraged to attend MOFD and Board of Forestry meetings and submit public comments.

The district also noted its wildfire prevention strategic plan, which lists seven lines of effort including external fuel‑mitigation projects (the shaded fuel breaks), internal mitigation (defensible space/home hardening and prescribed fire), preplanning, evacuation planning with law enforcement partners, building code enforcement changes tied to wildland‑urban interface code, and community education.

Isaacs asked homeowners to consult MOFD resources and staff for questions about whether their property is in a mapped hazard area and how the new rules will apply. He said fire prevention staff and the fire marshal’s office can guide residents through the maps and any upcoming inspections.