Wildfire season runs May through November. Most safe owners haven't reviewed placement since installation, and many have a new FHSZ designation they haven't acted on.
Five concrete actions, about 30 minutes total: placement, rating, door seal, document backup, and an evacuation plan.
This is an action page, not an explainer. Start the checklist below.
Wildfire season in NorCal runs May through November. Most safe owners have not reviewed placement since installation. Many have a new FHSZ designation from the recent CAL FIRE remapping they have not acted on. Almost none have a document backup protocol in place. This checklist covers all five actions in about 30 minutes.
Each step below is a discrete action with a time and a clear done state.
Is the safe on concrete or a wood-framed floor? In Very High FHSZ zones, wood-framed second-floor placement is a relocation priority. Is there concentrated fuel within 10 feet (firewood, gas cans, vehicles)? Is it in a heat-trap location (under stairs, a sealed corner, an unventilated closet)? In High and Very High zones, position it against an interior wall, away from vegetation-facing exterior walls.
Look up your current FHSZ zone at egis.fire.ca.gov/FHSZ and match it to the guidance: Moderate / urban / suburban, 60-minute adequate for paper. High FHSZ (El Dorado Hills, Auburn, Placerville), 90–120 minute floor. Very High FHSZ, rural, Tahoe-adjacent, 120+ minute, UL 72 verified.
Open the door. The seal should be a continuous strip on all four sides, check for missing sections, crumbling, or permanent flat compression. In a dark room, close the door without locking and look for light around the perimeter.
Scan passports, deeds, insurance policies, birth certificates, vehicle titles, and wills to cloud storage you can reach from outside your home. For photographs with no digital equivalent, use a flatbed scanner or a local digitization service before the season. Photograph every firearm serial-number location.
Keep a portable document folder outside the safe with critical-document copies for evacuation. Register or re-confirm registration with your county alert system. Know your zone's typical evacuation lead time.
CAL FIRE recently remapped Sacramento, Amador, and Calaveras counties. Properties in El Dorado Hills, the Folsom foothills, Auburn, Placerville, Grass Valley, Nevada City, and surrounding communities received updated designations. If your property moved from Moderate to High, or High to Very High, your fire-rating adequacy calculation changed.
What NorCal's fire hazard map updates mean for your safe, did your area's designation change?
See the FHSZ Guide →Five annual steps: audit your safe's placement for concrete foundation and cleared fuel perimeter, verify your fire rating is adequate for your current FHSZ zone, inspect the door seal for compression set or visible gaps, set up or verify a digital backup protocol for irreplaceable documents and photographs, and confirm your county's evacuation alert registration is active.
If your safe is currently on a wood-framed floor in an elevated FHSZ zone, or positioned adjacent to concentrated fuel sources, pre-season relocation is worth considering. Safe relocation after a wildfire event is significantly more complicated than before. Contact a professional installer to assess before the season opens.
Go to CAL FIRE's FHSZ map viewer at egis.fire.ca.gov/FHSZ and enter your address. The map shows your current zone designation. Sacramento, Amador, and Calaveras counties were remapped recently. If your property moved to High or Very High, your fire rating adequacy calculation changed.
Priority documents: passports, birth certificates, Social Security cards, property deeds, vehicle titles, insurance policies, wills and trusts, firearms purchase records. Scan all with a phone camera or flatbed scanner and store copies in cloud storage accessible from outside your home. Update annually or when documents change.
El Dorado County: AlertEDC.org. Placer County: ReadyPlacer.org. Nevada County: ReadyNevadaCounty.org. Amador County: AmadorCounty.net/emergency. Calaveras County: CalaverasCounty.gov/emergency. Napa County: ReadyNapa.org. Sonoma County: SoCoEmergency.org. Sign up before wildfire season each year.
The zone lookup, the remapping, and the county alert systems are official sources. Sources below.
CAL FIRE / Office of the State Fire Marshal, Fire Hazard Severity Zones update (osfm.fire.ca.gov).
CAL FIRE Fire Hazard Severity Zone Viewer (egis.fire.ca.gov/FHSZ).
County alert systems: El Dorado (AlertEDC.org), Placer (ReadyPlacer.org), Nevada (ReadyNevadaCounty.org), Amador, Calaveras, Napa (ReadyNapa.org), Sonoma (SoCoEmergency.org). Verify the current registration page for your county.
Norcal Safe and Vault installation and protection-design guidance; UL 72 rating standard.
Dealer-reportedThis checklist is general preparedness guidance, not a substitute for confirming your own FHSZ designation, following official evacuation instructions, and consulting a professional installer about your specific property. County alert URLs change; verify the current page for your county.
This guide is part of the series: Understanding Fire Protection
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