作者住在加州伯克利山丘、靠近易燃野地的社区，担心在炎热强风天大量飞火会把人口约12万的城市边缘烧成连锁灾难。他为一栋1928年的房子开始做「Zone Zero」式的防火改造：在屋外5英尺（约1.5公尺）内清除可燃植物与材料，因研究显示抗飞火缓冲带能大幅提高住宅存活率。
但专家把野火韧性比作疫苗：高风险区约需要90%的屋主遵守，否则一户起火的辐射热就会引燃邻宅，形成结构对结构的失控燃烧。洛杉矶2025年1月的火风暴造成31人死亡、摧毁逾16,000栋建物后，州长要求年底前通过延宕已久、影响约200万户的州级Zone Zero规范；然而在屋主反弹下，州机关于2025年12月9日表示将错过期限，最快要到2026年3月才再审。
州级规则对既有住宅最早要到2029年才生效，伯克利则在2025年夏天通过地方版，将于2026年1月1日上路。作者回顾：2024年消防单位检查山丘区9,000户后，他更清楚近屋植栽与通风口等细节如何让飞火入侵。他7个月已花约20,000美元：3,000美元换金属大门、约4,500美元装防飞火网并替邻居两个通风口加装；接著还有约6,000美元的近屋围篱、金属车库门，以及窗门汰换可能再花数万美元，且需长期维护；社区也尝试以Firewise等方式集体清理。
The author lives in California’s Berkeley Hills, where hot, gusty days can drive ember storms into a dense neighborhood edging a city of about 120,000. To protect a 1928 house, he begins “Zone Zero” hardening: clearing combustible plants and materials within 5 feet (1.5 meters) of the structure, since studies suggest ember-resistant buffers can sharply raise a home’s odds of surviving.
Experts argue wildfire resilience is like vaccination: roughly 90% of homeowners in a high-risk area must comply, or one burning house can radiate enough heat to ignite its neighbors and cascade into structure-to-structure fire. After the January 2025 Los Angeles firestorms killed 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 buildings, the governor pushed long-delayed statewide Zone Zero rules affecting about 2 million homes; amid backlash, the state said on Dec. 9, 2025 it would miss the deadline and revisit the rules in March 2026.
Because statewide rules for existing homes may not take effect until 2029, Berkeley adopted a local version in summer 2025 that starts Jan. 1, 2026. A 2024 inspection of 9,000 hillside homes helped the author see how vents, fences, and near-house landscaping become ignition pathways. In 7 months he has spent about $20,000—$3,000 for a metal gate and roughly $4,500 for ember-resistant vent mesh (including his neighbor’s vents)—and still faces ~$6,000 for a fence section, a metal garage door, and window/door replacements that could run into the tens of thousands, plus ongoing maintenance and neighborhood-wide efforts like Firewise.