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Cal Fire’s model instead accounts for the vegetation type, topology, climate and weather for wildland areas to calculate the probability of an area burning and the likely intensity of the blaze.

Other changes in the real world — such as new housing developments that changed an area’s classification from wildland to urban — also resulted in modifications to the Cal Fire maps.

“It basically says you’ve got a wildland piece and an urban area or agricultural area next to it,” he said.

The urban and agricultural area adjacent to the wildland “gets the same wildland score … and then it will decay with distance away.”

Wildland firefighters, like Dan Hilden, have so far been exempted from forest service cuts.