How to help yourself if you live in a high fire zone
by Amy Joi O'Donoghue deseret news · KSL.comEstimated read time: 3-4 minutes
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Legislation passed in 2025 mandates a High-Risk Wildland Urban Interface map for wildfire zones.
- Counties must assess fees for preparedness; non-compliance may lead to funding denial.
- Wildfire insurance challenges rise, with policy cancellations up 82% and rate hikes expected.
SALT LAKE CITY — New legislation passed in 2025 mandated the creation of a plan to help Utahns living in high-risk areas for wildfires.
The Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands recently unveiled the state's new High-Risk Wildland Urban Interface map, a key component of HB48 that was passed by the state Legislature during the 2025 legislative session.
Sponsored by House Majority Leader Casey Snider, R-Tremonton, the new law requires counties to take certain actions related to wildland urban interface property, including the assessment of fees.
It directs those fees to be deposited in a special fund to enable preparedness, prevention and mitigation and requires building codes to meet certain specifications.
There is a catch, however.
Under certain circumstances, the division will not cover the costs of local governments if standards are not met.
This has been an ongoing problem, many say.
Both Little and Big Cottonwood canyons are wildly popular, nestled along the Wasatch Front and offering premier hiking opportunities in the summer and tantalizing powder in the winter for skiers of all sorts.
But they come with inherent danger — with limited ways to get out of the canyon. At Big Cottonwood Canyon, Guardsman Pass is open during the summer, but in Little Cottonwood Canyon, there is only one way in and one way out, which presents a recipe for devastating consequences should a fire erupt.
Consider that Big and Little Cottonwood canyons, along with Millcreek, receive an estimated 3.2 million visitors a year in an area that spans 80,000 acres. That eclipses the amount of visitation Arches and some other national parks in Utah receive.
The high-risk WUI layer was developed by defining a structure exposure score. This score was rated on a scale of 1 to 8, with 1 being the lowest and 8 the highest. Structures that were assigned a score of 7 or higher and in proximity to two or more structures within an 820-foot radius were included in the high-risk WUI boundary.
Data used in the scientific modeling include wildfire likelihood, weather, ember load, flame-length potential, topography, vegetation, and fuelscape datasets, structure density, and historical fire-occurrence patterns. This data created a standardized statewide boundary to support the consistent implementation of HB48.
According to utahfireinfo.gov, there were 1,158 wildfires in Utah this year that scorched nearly 165,000 acres.
With drought's relentless grip on the West, wildfires are becoming more frequent, deadly and expensive. Home insurance in fire-prone areas is getting harder to obtain, particularly as it relates to wildfires.
State data reported by The Cool Down shows that in 2025, policy cancellations and nonrenewals linked to wildfires rose by 82%.
As an example, the U.S. Sun is reporting that, come Jan. 1, a new law in Nevada allows insurance companies to refuse to provide coverage for certain high-risk events, including wildfires.
In southern Utah, there is a risk of double-digit rate increases and the Wasatch Back is experiencing its own financial pain.
The new map is available as a layer on the Utah Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal at wildfirerisk.utah.gov.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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Amy Joi O'Donoghue
Amy Joi O’Donoghue is a reporter for the Utah InDepth team at the Deseret News and has decades of expertise in covering land and environmental issues.