The California Insurance Commissioner has ordered insurers to preserve residential property coverage for about 50,000 policyholders in Tuolumne, Stanislaus and Calaveras counties, imposing a one-year moratorium on cancellations and non-renewals after Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for the Dove Fire, the California Department of Insurance announced this week.
The Dove Fire was a comparatively small blaze. According to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, it started July 26 near Highway 108 and Stockton Street in Tuolumne County, burned 226 acres, destroyed 12 structures and was fully contained August 1. The Governor’s emergency proclamation did not come until October 15, 2026, and was aimed at speeding the removal of hazardous debris from affected properties. Because the moratorium runs for one year from the date of the Governor’s declaration, not the date of the fire, the protection runs from October 15, 2026, about two and a half months after the fire was contained.
The order rests on Insurance Code § 675.1, enacted in 2018 through Senate Bill 824, which Lara authored as a state senator. Under the statute, insurers may not cancel or refuse to renew a residential policy for property in a ZIP code within or adjacent to a fire perimeter for one year after an emergency declaration, when the action is based solely on the property’s location in a wildfire area. CAL FIRE and Cal OES identify the perimeter, and the Commissioner then issues a bulletin listing the covered ZIP codes. According to the Department, the protection applies whether or not a policyholder suffered a loss. Homeowners who suffered a total loss in a declared disaster already have separate, longer renewal protections under existing law.
The order also reaches some commercial policies. Insurance Code § 675.55, added by Senate Bill 547 (Chapter 544, Statutes of 2025), the Business Insurance Protection Act, extends the moratorium to certain commercial property policies. It took effect January 1, 2026. The release describes the covered commercial policies as those under $25,000 in annual premium, including policies for homeowners’ associations, apartment complexes, student housing, senior living facilities and other property used mainly for residential purposes. The Department’s August Bulletin 2026-6, issued for an earlier fire, spells out the statute more precisely. The commercial exclusion applies to policies with $25,000 or more in annual premium only where the insured also averaged at least 25 employees over the prior year. Inland marine, transit and commercial auto coverage is excluded. Habitational properties stay covered even above those thresholds.
The release does not list the covered ZIP codes. As of this writing, the Department’s moratorium page did not yet show a Dove Fire bulletin. Policyholders can check whether a ZIP code is covered with the Department’s online moratorium lookup. The Department said consumers who were non-renewed before the declaration date and cannot find coverage, or who are dissatisfied with their current coverage, should contact it for help. So should anyone who believes an insurer is violating the law. The consumer hotline is 800-927-4357, and the TTY line is 800-482-4833.
Lara said in the release that he is acting to protect Californians from “the stress of losing their insurance.” He framed the order as part of a broader effort to restore insurance options statewide.
The Dove Fire order adds to a growing stack of moratoriums in the same corner of the Sierra foothills. In August, Lara protected more than 64,000 policyholders in Calaveras, San Joaquin, Amador, Tuolumne and Stanislaus counties after the Gann Fire. In September 2025, Bulletin 2025-13 covered Calaveras and Tuolumne ZIP codes after the TCU September Lightning Complex fires.
The rules are about to get longer. Governor Newsom signed AB 2038 (Harabedian) on September 30, 2026. According to trade press reports, it doubles the post-wildfire moratorium to two years and extends total-loss renewal guarantees from 24 to 36 months, effective January 1, 2027. The Dove Fire release does not mention AB 2038 or say whether the longer period would apply to emergencies declared before the law takes effect.
For insurers, the order means suspending wildfire-based non-renewals in the affected ZIP codes once the Department publishes them. Carriers writing commercial habitational risks need to apply the same suspension. For employers and property owners, the commercial provisions matter most to those who operate apartment buildings, senior housing, student housing or association-governed communities in the three counties. For them, the moratorium offers a year of stability on renewals, but it does not freeze premiums or bar non-renewals for reasons unrelated to wildfire location.