Do Siskiyou County homes depend on the FAIR Plan more than in 2022?

The FAIR Plan's count in Siskiyou County went from 903 policies on September 30, 2022, to 3,339 on September 30, 2026, a 270% rise. Those figures cover the 21 ZIP codes the Plan assigns to the county, and California's total rose 150% over the same span. The last of those years added 10% in Siskiyou County, up from 3,029 policies on September 30, 2025.

Mount Shasta's 96067 had the most on September 30, 2026: 886 policies, up from 115 in 2022. Yreka's 96097 had 521, up from 82, and Weed's 96094 had 460, up from 73.

All three started low. In 2022, the Plan covered 3.4% of insured homes in Mount Shasta's ZIP code, 2.5% in Yreka's and 2.7% in Weed's, by the Department of Insurance's count. Across Siskiyou County's ZIP codes the 2022 share was 5.6%, against 3.2% statewide.

On September 30, 2026, the Plan placed 46% of its Siskiyou County policies in its own High wildfire tier, while the statewide share was 37%.

On September 30, 2026, all 21 Siskiyou County ZIP codes bore a flag the FAIR Plan carries under its "Is Distressed Area" heading.

Outside the FAIR Plan, 1,456 Siskiyou County policies ended in non-renewal in 2023, or 9.2%, against 8.7% statewide.

Not every non-renewal is an insurer's choice. Most start with owners, 75% to 80% of them, by research the Department of Insurance cited in a January 13, 2025 fact sheet. A sale or a switch to a new insurer counts.

Two fires that began in Weed each destroyed more than 100 structures. The Boles Fire, which started September 15, 2014, destroyed 165, and the Mill Fire, which started September 2, 2022, destroyed 118 and killed two people. Their CAL FIRE pages were last updated October 11, 2014, and June 14, 2023.

The McKinney Fire started on July 29, 2022, by Highway 96 southwest of Klamath River. Its page, last updated November 14, 2022, counts 60,138 acres, 185 structures destroyed and four civilians killed.

Two fires that rank among California's 20 largest on a CAL FIRE list dated October 2, 2024, burned in Siskiyou County. The 2021 River Complex covered 199,359 acres and destroyed 122 structures, its page shows (last updated October 14, 2022). The list gives the 2008 Klamath Theater Complex 192,038 acres.

The 2021 Lava Fire, which started June 24 near Hotlum and Lumm roads, burned 26,409 acres. Its CAL FIRE page, last updated September 3, 2021, gives no structure count.

Fires like these brought insurance moratoriums, declared for Siskiyou County ZIP codes in every year from 2020 through 2024, the Department of Insurance's bulletins show. Each moratorium stopped wildfire-risk cancellations and non-renewals of home policies in its ZIP codes for a year.

Mount Shasta's 96067 was covered six times, among them for the Lava Fire in 2021 and the Mill Fire in 2022. The most recent, declared November 1, 2024, for the Shelly Fire, covered 11 Siskiyou County ZIP codes, Yreka's 96097 among them, and ended a year later. After a new fire, look up whether a ZIP code is covered.

Siskiyou County requires a vacation rental permit before anyone advertises or rents a home outside city limits for stays of 29 days or less. The rules are Article 61 of the county code, which the Board of Supervisors adopted on March 19, 2024, as Ordinance 24-04.

In the county's McCloud area, its Dunsmuir and Mount Shasta area, and its Weed and Lake Shastina area, the parcel must be at least 2.5 acres. In the last two, a new vacation rental permit also needs fewer than 5% of the area's properties to hold one already.

Every application needs proof that CAL FIRE has inspected the property under the state's fire-safe and defensible space rules, Public Resources Code sections 4290 and 4291. A vacation rental permit expires on December 31 of the third year after it is issued.

Before you list the home, get your insurer's written answer on paying guests, using the questions in our guide to short-term guests.

On land where the state leads firefighting, the State Fire Marshal's zones, adopted April 1, 2024, cover 1,383,152 acres of Siskiyou County. Of those acres, 1,062,281 are Very High, the Fire Marshal's acreage table shows.

The 2025 maps for locally protected land add 67,932 acres in the county, 16,446 of them Very High. Siskiyou County received its local map on February 10, 2025, and took public comments until April 2, 2025.

The zone sets local fire rules, while each insurer runs its own wildfire risk model. Insurers choose "where they will write and renew policies" with those models, not the zone maps, the Department of Insurance wrote in an alert on April 4, 2025.

Modelers' wildfire scores, weighted in the Department of Insurance's Appendix C, rate 45.9% of the dwelling units in Siskiyou County high or very high. That compares with 12.1% statewide, on a count of homes as of January 1, 2015.

Just one Siskiyou County agency is named in the Fire Risk Reduction Community List for 2026: the Shasta Valley Resource Conservation District. That district serves central Siskiyou County, by its own website. The Board of Forestry approved the list on June 17, 2026, and it names neither the county nor any of its cities.

The FAIR Plan's discount sheet links a community discount to listed communities and Firewise USA sites, and it says discounts are subject to change. Check a single parcel's zone with our fire zone lookup guide.

Start with standard insurers, then specialty insurers, which write many homes that standard insurers pass on. Only then comes the FAIR Plan, which its own website calls an insurer of last resort.

If an insurer will not renew, the law gives you a head start before the policy ends. Its notice, mailed or delivered, must allow at least 75 days (90 days beginning January 1, 2028) of warning. Begin the search at once.

About one Siskiyou County home in ten, 9.7%, was held for seasonal or occasional use, by the Census Bureau's survey covering 2020 through 2024, against 2.4% statewide. The same survey puts the share near 31% in McCloud's 96057 and 23% in Dunsmuir's 96025.

A second home goes through Casa's same questionnaire, with a few added questions about how it is used, like the months it sits empty.

FAIR Plan dwelling rates are 29.1% higher on average for new policies and renewals on or after October 15, 2026. Some homes see more than that, and some see less. Our guide to the October 15, 2026 change explains how a renewal shows it.

Bring these to the first conversation.

• Your policy's current declarations page, which lists what it covers.
• Photos, with dates, of brush and needles cleared near the house.
• Dates of roof, wiring and plumbing updates, with permits if you have them.
• Who looks after the home when it sits empty in winter.