December 10, 2025 – The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) released findings from its post-event investigation of the 2025 Los Angeles County Eaton and Palisades fires, showing that a systems-based approach to wildfire resilience dramatically improves home survival in suburban conflagrations. Based on on-the-ground assessments of more than 250 properties and lab testing, the study found that homes with multiple hardening features — such as Class A roofs, noncombustible siding, double-pane windows, and enclosed eaves — were substantially more likely to avoid damage than those with only a single measure, and that vegetation and combustible materials in the first five feet around homes (Zone Zero) significantly increase the risk of ignition and loss. these results underscore the importance of comprehensive home hardening and defensible space to protect homes and neighborhoods from wildfire.

January 7, 2026 – U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate Wildfire Caucus, announced bipartisan legislation to establish a new grant program to help local communities defend themselves from the growing danger of wildfires. The Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act would invest $1 billion annually to empower communities to implement additional science-based methods like home hardening for mitigating wildfire damage by funding new Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Plans developed in coordination with community members, first responders, and relevant state agencies. The new community hardening grant program would be housed within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The bill would also add home hardening as an allowable project under the U.S. Forest Service’s Community Wildfire Defense Grant program.

Specifically, the bipartisan Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Act would invest $1 billion per year to:

• Establish guidelines for communities to conceptualize new Community Protection and Wildfire Resilience Plans (CPWRP) that are developed in coordination with community members, first responders, and relevant state agencies. CPWRPs will focus on implementing strategies and activities relating to:
• • • Improving early detection technology, public outreach and education, alerts and warnings, evacuation planning, evacuation execution, and access for first responders;
    • Addressing vulnerable populations, including the elderly and those with disabilities;
    • Hardening critical infrastructure and homes;
    • Applying community-scale defensible space across contiguous areas;
    • Building local capacity to implement and oversee the plan;
    • Deploying distributed energy resources like microgrids with battery storage;
    • Implementing strategic land use planning;
    • Educating community members; and
    • Coordinating with existing wildfire plans like a Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
• Provide grants of up to $250,000 to develop a CPWRP and grants of up to $10 million to implement a CPWRP:
• • • Grants will be prioritized for low-income communities that are at high risk for fire or wildfire and communities recently impacted by a major wildfire.

• Complete a report on all federal authorities and programs to protect communities from wildfires;
• Study how a CPWRP could be used as certification for insurance companies assessing community resilience;
• Continuously update wildfire hazard maps;
• Assess impediments to emergency radio communications across departments and agencies; and
• Allow for structure hardening to be covered under existing community wildfire protection programs.