Water Heaters - Earthquake rules replacement heater

I'm going to be replacing a water heater in the basement of a house that has a very open basement floor plan. It's a little hard to explain, but the base of the floor slopes towards the middle open area, so the areas around the perimeter are too shallow to place the water heater (think of a bowl). The only thing in the open floor space is a brick chimney base. This is a 120 year old house. Am I allowed to strap the WH to this chimney? If so, do I bolt, or run the straps entirely around the chimney? Any blocking?

If I'm not allowed to do this, then what?

The water heater could be placed right up to the chimney...but some blocking of 1X or 2X is convenient. You could run the straps all the way around. But if you are in CA the strapping has to be approved by the state architect, and you don't find approved strap in long lengths commonly.

As long as an inspector signs off, some lead shields in the masonry with the appropriate 3/8 lag bolt should be adequate.

Excellent! Thank you very much. Yes, I probably wouldn't find strapping that long unless I put a couple of 120 gallon straps together which doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.