New State Wildfire Risk Map Shows Property Ratings

Utah House Bill 48, which passed in 2025, works to make the state safer from wildfires. It does this by offering homeowners a way to reduce dangers to their property. The bill required the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands (DNR-FFSL) to create a map showing areas where homes and buildings face the highest risk from wildfires. This map is called the High-Risk Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) map. You can find the map online at  wildfirerisk.utah.gov on the Utah Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal.

About 60,000 buildings, including some in Draper, are located in these high-risk areas. You can type an address into the map's search bar to find its risk rating. Homes and other buildings marked as high-risk on the map might have to pay a yearly fee to the State. This fee would help pay for ongoing efforts to reduce fire dangers and put out fires. This assessment program is not ready yet, but the State expects it to start later this year. If you have questions after looking at the map, you can visit the HB 48 FAQ web page. 

Since Draper City was not involved in making the map or running the program, please send any other questions directly to DNR-FFSL. The DNR-FFSL explained that they created the high-risk WUI layer by figuring out a "structure exposure score." This score ranged from 1 (lowest risk) to 8 (highest risk). Buildings that scored 7 or higher and were close to two or more other buildings within 250 meters (820 feet) were included in the high-risk WUI boundary. The DNR-FFSL stated that their scientific models used information such as how likely wildfires are, weather conditions, how many embers might fly, how long flames could be, the shape of the land, types of plants, fuel sources, how many buildings are in an area, and past fire patterns. This information helped create a consistent boundary across the state for carrying out HB 48.