For five years, San Marcos city officials kept from public view a color-coded map showing varying degrees of risk to residents from catastrophic wildfires ---- including two neighborhoods judged to be in "extreme" danger of property loss, death or injury ---- for fear insurance companies would use the information to justify dropping policies or hiking rates, officials have acknowledged.

In 2005, San Marcos commissioned a study to assess wildfire risks for the city's communities. The study rated two communities as having "extreme" and five as having "very high" risks during wildfires.

City officials said in a series of recent interviews that they decided not to publicly release a color-coded map from the study that marked Coronado Hills and neighboring Attebury in a shade of deep red ---- signifying extreme wildfire hazard ---- opting instead to circulate a version showing all wildfire areas in a uniform shade of green.

Read More:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/san-marcos/article_1d9f415d-f332-56ad-9a2c-76739af2c612.html

---