Commissioner Garamendi said he took the action to help alleviate what he saw as an emerging trend of homeowners whose houses are in potential wildfire areas being non-renewed by their insurers. "The industry is looking at its risk in the brush zones and is taking steps to restrict their underwriting," he said.

That trend has yet to make a significant appearance, however, according to Mike Harris, a spokesman for the FAIR Plan.

Participation in the insurer of last resort "has not grown dramatically at all" since the most recent wave of wildfires in Southern California, Mr. Harris said, noting that the number of homeowners in the plan has increased by roughly one percent.

Commissioner Garamendi noted that some companies?typically smaller companies?have begun to non-renew in areas that have been hit by wildfires, or have the potential to be. The commissioner also said his department has seen some evidence these smaller companies may be redlining areas of the state they deem to be exposed to wild fires based on satellite photos, and he offered those companies a warning.

"I do not and will not tolerate the blanket redlining of large parts of California, through whatever methodology they might use."

Jerry Davies, president of the Sacramento-based Personal Insurance Federation of California, said that large companies are not participating in the non-renewal trend. "No, they are not non-renewing at all," he said. "They are writing."

Mr. Davies also suggested a reason why smaller companies, whom he noted he does not represent, might be non-renewing after the wildfires. Some insurers, he said, may have realized their exposure was concentrated in certain areas and "may find that they are becoming financially unsound," he said.

Moving forward, Mr. Garamendi said that the Department of Insurance has begun working with the Independent Insurance agents and Brokers of America to spread word of the eased FAIR Plan access to agents in the state. "If they are unable to place any of their customers in the normal market," he said, "they will know the FAIR plan is there as a backstop."