ABOUT

This site documents what wildfire science, land-use history, and real-world fire outcomes actually show about fire risk in urban environments — particularly in cities like Los Angeles, where homes, infrastructure, and natural landscapes are deeply interwoven.

This site does not promote a single solution or ideology. It examines how fire behaves once it enters cities, and how decisions about land use, density, spacing, moisture, and governance shape outcomes long before a fire starts.

Much of today’s wildfire policy was developed for forest-adjacent communities. When those same ideas are applied wholesale to dense urban and intermix settings, they often produce unintended consequences: increased heat, faster ember travel, ecological damage, and a false sense of safety that obscures more powerful drivers of structure loss.

Method

The work published here follows a simple standard:

Clarity over certainty. Evidence over slogans. Context over generalization.

Posts are selected and written based on the following principles:

• Urban fire is not the same as wildland fire.
  Analyses distinguish between forest fire behavior and urban firestorms, where structures become the primary fuels.

• Vegetation is not treated as a proxy for risk.
  Moisture, heat, wind, spacing, and structure-to-structure ignition are considered primary variables.

• Land-use decisions are fire risk or safety decisions.
  Density, setbacks, rebuilding patterns, and public land management are evaluated as core drivers of risk—not secondary considerations.

• Claims are separated from evidence. Claims are evaluated against available evidence and expert consensus, with uncertainty acknowledged where it exists.
  Media narratives, policy statements, and industry claims are examined against available data and expert consensus, with uncertainty acknowledged where it exists.

• This is a public record.
  Posts are written to remain relevant over time and to be cited, scrutinized, or challenged without embarrassment.

What this Is — and is Not

This is not:

• a blog

• a marketing platform

• a how-to guide for landscaping

• an advocacy campaign or action hub

It is:

• an archive of expert-informed analysis

• a reference for journalists, planners, designers, and homeowners

• a space where complex fire issues are treated with seriousness rather than simplification

Why Landscape & Design Matter

Fire safety in cities is often framed as a matter of individual compliance—clearance, checklists, and mandates applied parcel by parcel. This site takes a different view.

Landscapes are not decorations. They are infrastructure.

Well-designed urban landscapes can retain moisture, moderate heat, suppress highly flammable fuels, and interrupt ember pathways. Poorly designed or stripped landscapes can do the opposite. Understanding that difference—and applying it at the scale of neighborhoods and cities—is essential to reducing future losses.

Who She?

Diana Z Nicole is a Southern California–based wildfire policy analyst and ecological horticulturist focused on vegetation-based defensible space, urban ecology, and the real-world impacts of fire regulations on California communities.

She is independent and unaffiliated with insurance, industry, or government. Her work centers on making wildfire science accessible, verifiable, and grounded in lived ecological and community outcomes.

She analyzes wildfire legislation, regulatory rulemaking, and industry influence to assess whether policies are supported by evidence, ecological function, and transparency — rather than fear-driven assumptions or profit-based incentives.

Disagreement is welcome and expected, but it should engage the science and the policy record, not speculate about motives.

Mission: Protect homes, habitats, and truth.

What Is Zone 0 — and Why It Matters

Zone 0 refers to the first five feet around structures — a space the California Board of Forestry seeks to regulate as a “noncombustible zone.” The intent is to reduce ignition risk from embers. The problem? The rule ignores decades of fire science, regional variability, and the ecological importance of small-scale green spaces.