Weeks after deadly fires swept through Los Angeles County, the state regulator in charge of overseeing utility companies declined a request that would have required California’s largest utilities to update maps showing high fire threat areas.
Consumer advocates argued for more up-to-date maps that could help assess risk to communities and impose more stringent requirements for utility infrastructure within high-threat areas. The maps show the risk of a wildfire caused by equipment owned by the state’s three major investor-owned utilities; they are separate from Cal Fire’s maps that show the potential for fires bas