For perspective: <\/strong>That\u2019s only 5,600 students and 31 schools less than in Los Angeles, which leads California counties having the most students and schools in these high hazard zones. And that\u2019s despite L.A. having 6.7 million more residents than San Diego County.<\/p>\n Not just the backcountry:<\/strong> 15 schools are in North County coastal areas. Another 12 are in the South Bay, and dozens more are scattered across the city of San Diego.<\/p>\n Wildfire preparedness optional:<\/strong> The California Department of Education<\/a> doesn\u2019t require schools to include a wildfire response in their safety plan, an addition some counties such as San Diego have strongly encouraged, Tracy Schmidt, the senior director of attendance, safety and student engagement for the county\u2019s Office of Education, told EdSource.<\/p>\n Zooming out: <\/strong>The Palisades and Eaton fires in L.A. County damaged or destroyed<\/a> a combined nine schools in January. Before that, the 2018 Camp Fire<\/a> in Northern California scorched 13.<\/p>\n Map: San Diego public schools located in or near fire hazard severity zones<\/p>\n The Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) classifies Fire Hazard Severity Zones as\u00a0Moderate, High, or Very High<\/strong>, based on factors like fuel load, slope, fire weather and wind patterns that increase wildfire spread.\u00a0<\/p>\n Use the map to check whether your local schools are in these zones, and filter by Moderate, High, or Very High to explore further.<\/p>\n Understanding hazard vs. risk<\/strong><\/p>\n Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps evaluate \u201chazard,\u201d not \u201crisk,\u201d Cal Fire says. Here\u2019s the agency\u2019s definition of both:<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Hazard\u2019<\/strong> is based on the physical conditions that create a likelihood and expected fire behavior over a 30 to 50-year period without considering mitigation measures such as home hardening, recent wildfire, or fuel reduction efforts. \u2018Risk\u2019<\/strong> is the potential damage a fire can do to the area under existing conditions, accounting for any modifications such as fuel reduction projects, defensible space, and ignition resistant building construction.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, the maps are much more about assessing future fire likelihood than projecting imminent risk.<\/p>\n Data source: Cal Fire, the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) and EdSource data analysis<\/p>\n \t\t\tType of Content<\/p>\n News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGiovanni joined us October 2022 and manages the overall user experience across our suite of news products and integrations. His love for UX came from a background of innovation in journalism, including 360 video production and social media. Giovanni is a native San Diegan, proud University of Southern…\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Avatar](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/cropped-0023-copy-80x80.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Giovanni Moujaes\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some 80,000 students in 96 public schools across San Diego County go to class in areas deemed a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":110996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3432,407,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5609],"class_list":{"0":"post-110995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-data","12":"tag-education","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa","21":"tag-wildfires"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114955066021767715","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}