The Abridged version:
- Construction is underway for 24 new homes in Cameron Park in El Dorado County that are designed to be resistant to wildfire.
- Most of Cameron Park has some degree of wildfire risk, and the area near the homes is considered a “high” risk zone.
- The homes feature concrete tile roofs, stucco siding and vinyl fences, which the homebuilder says prevents embers from igniting into a more destructive blaze.
An incoming set of homes in Cameron Park back up to an expanse of mature oak trees, broad hillsides and fresh winter grasses that will inevitably fade into dry brush. It’s the kind of lush scenery that city folk like to escape to for weekend hikes.
For a homeowner, that backdrop can become nightmare fuel when wildfire strikes.
Despite the risk of wildfire, a homebuilding company has its sights on adding 24 new homes to the edge of Cameron Park in El Dorado County.
The new homes are designed with fire safety in mind, and recently became the second in the nation to receive a “wildfire prepared” designation from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS). IBHS is a nonprofit research organization funded by the property insurance industry. The first designation went to a community, also built by KB Home, in Escondido in San Diego County.
“If a fire was in an adjacent area, it would shower this community with thousands of embers. You want to make sure those embers fizzle out and don’t ignite these houses,” said Roy Wright, CEO of IBHS, on a recent tour of the homes.
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Recent wildfire losses inspire firesafe construction
Destructive wildfires in California and the Western United States over the past decade have brought calls for more aggressive firesafe construction in residential areas.
Some 2,800 homes were lost in Santa Rosa in the 2017 Tubbs fire. Last year in Los Angeles, the Eaton and Palisades fires claimed more than 16,000 structures. Some homeowners in Los Angeles are encouraging rebuilding with fire-safe materials to create a “herd immunity” in fire prone neighborhoods.
CalFire’s website provides resources for homeowners in fire prone areas to retrofit with fire-safe materials.
Last year, Mercury Insurance launched discounts for firesafe homes in California and Oregon that meet certain criteria.
Cameron Park home builder pushes sales
The homebuilder behind the Cameron Park properties, KB Home, and IBHS arranged a media tour for the homes on Wednesday, coinciding with the same day that home sales opened for the properties.
The area where the new homes are planned is a “high” risk area for wildfire, according to Cal Fire’s fire hazard severity zone map. Most neighborhoods on the exterior of Cameron Park’s borders have “high” or “very high” risk, and the entire city is bordered by areas prone to wildfire, according to the map.
To compensate for that, the new homes are built with a “layer effect of protections,” Wright said, that decrease the likelihood of a more destructive fire breaking out. If a home does ignite, the neighborhood has extra spacing intended to prevent a fire from spreading from home to home.
Designed to keep fire at a distance
From the outside, the new homes look similar to other newly built homes in California. The single-story structure is clad in stucco and adorned in light paint.
A closer look at the design reveals a few features that make the buildings more resistant to embers.
About 6 inches of space are cut out at the foot of the exterior walls, which creates a space where embers can get trapped. If the wind carries embers into the side of the house, they’ll gather up at the foot of the wall where there’s little to ignite, according to Wright.
“You’re looking at keeping the fire away,” he said.
Landscaping is predominately made of gravel and slabs of stone, all plants are at least 5 feet away from the house and spaced apart at least 2 feet from one another.
A fence along the house is made of vinyl, with the last 5 feet of fencing near the house made of metal. Double-paned windows are intended to prevent the windows from blowing out under high heat conditions, and the roof is made of concrete tiles that can withstand burning temperatures for at least 30 minutes.
The eaves are closed off, and ventilation for the attic has a mesh covering that has a heat-activated seal, Wright said.
People living in the neighborhood are still encouraged to bring their backyard furniture indoors during red flag fire warning days, according to Wright said.
Firesafe homes ‘cost neutral,’ builder says
Wright said that the changes to the homes are “generally cost neutral” and that the durability isn’t adding to the cost of the home.
The new homes range from about 2,300 to 2,800 square feet, have four to six bedrooms and have a starting price of $780,000, according to KB Home.
A homeowners association for the new neighborhood will require that all property owners maintain their home’s IBHS designation. That requires an annual renewal achieved by submitting photos of the exterior of the house and an inspection.
Working with turbulent home insurance market
Finding home insurance can be difficult, and expensive, for homeowners in El Dorado County. While more home insurance companies are returning to the market — after withdrawal in 2022 and 2023 — rates continue to go up.
Many homeowners in the region also continue to look to the state’s “last resort” home insurance plan as well, the California FAIR Plan. As of September 2025, about 4,852 homes in the three ZIP codes that touch Cameron Park were on the state-run insurance plan that serves as a backup for those who can’t find conventional home insurance plans.
“As those insurers come back into the market, they’re going to look for good risk, and this is good risk,” Wright said.
Felicia Alvarez is a reporter at Abridged covering accountability. She’s called Sacramento home since 2015 and has reported on government, health care and breaking news topics for both local and national news outlets.