SB 492: Wildfire.

Official summary

Legislative Counsel’s Digest (official, as of the latest version). Written by nonpartisan legislative staff; reproduced verbatim.

(1)Existing law establishes the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in the Natural Resources Agency and requires the department to coordinate programs of fire protection, fire prevention, pest control, and forest and range maintenance and enhancement.

This bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2029, in consultation with the Department of Insurance, the Natural Resources Agency, the Office of Emergency Services, and other relevant departments, to develop standards for state and local agencies to aggregate and make available data related to parcel-, neighborhood-, and community-level wildfire risk for the purpose of enabling a wildfire data sharing platform, as provided. The bill would require the department to incorporate those data standards into community wildfire risk reduction metrics.

(2)Existing law creates the Department of Insurance, headed by the Insurance Commissioner, and prescribes their powers and duties. Existing law requires, on or before April 1, 2026, and every 2 years thereafter, an admitted insurer with written California premiums totaling $12,000,000 or more to submit a report to the Insurance Commissioner on its residential property experience data for the previous 2 years for policies written in California, as specified. Existing law requires this information submitted to the commissioner to be confidential, exempt from the California Public Records Act, and not subject to subpoena, as provided.

This bill would authorize the Department of Insurance to provide information submitted to the department, including, among other things, the property experience data described above, to researchers and government agencies for the purpose of evaluating California wildfire risk, insurance protection gaps, or wildfire risk mitigation, as provided. The bill would require any published data product collected pursuant to the above-described authority that is provided to a researcher or government agency to be anonymized and aggregated sufficiently to avoid identification of individual company losses, claims data, or information on confidential business practices, as specified, and would prohibit subsequent reports from identifying an individual respondent or insurer.

(3)Existing law requires the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to annually provide to the Legislature a report detailing the department’s fire prevention efforts and annually post on its internet website information regarding hazardous fuel reduction and vegetation management projects funded or conducted by the department, as provided. Existing law requires the department to develop a standardized protocol for monitoring implementation and evaluating the positive and negative ecological and fire behavior impacts from vegetation management projects undertaken by the state, as provided.

This bill would repeal those requirements and would instead require the department, on or before March 1 of each year, to prepare and submit a report to the Legislature on the detailed efforts made in California towards wildfire prevention and community preparedness, as provided.

Sponsors

Sponsors by party (alphabetical): Democratic 6

“Support” is shown only as formal sponsorship recorded by the legislature. Roll-call votes are available on the official bill page.

Recent official actions

1. August 30, 2026Ordered to third reading.
2. August 30, 2026Withdrawn from committee.
3. August 30, 2026Assembly Rule 96 suspended. (Ayes 56. Noes 18. Page 6920.)
4. August 30, 2026Coauthors revised.
5. August 29, 2026From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on RLS.
6. August 28, 2026Re-referred to Com. on RLS. pursuant to Assembly Rule 96.
7. May 4, 2026Referred to Com. on H. & C.D.
8. January 27, 2026In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk.
9. January 27, 2026Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. (Ayes 30. Noes 9. Page 3300.) Ordered to the Assembly.
10. January 26, 2026Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
11. January 22, 2026Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading.
12. January 22, 2026From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 5. Noes 2. Page 3269.) (January 22).