On August 19, 2026, the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection approved a new statewide rule called Zone 0 - the first-in-the-nation regulation governing the five feet of ground immediately surrounding a home. If you own property in a fire-prone part of California, this is the rule that will eventually determine what you can and can't have touching your house.
Here's what it actually says, in plain language, built directly from the Board's own adopted regulation text (14 CCR §1298.04 for local-responsibility areas, §1299.03 for state-responsibility areas) rather than a paraphrase of news coverage.
What Zone 0 actually is
Zone 0 is the area within five feet of a home or other occupied structure - starting at the exterior wall, roof, or an attached deck, stairs, or pergola, and extending out five feet or to the property line, whichever comes first. It exists because wind-driven embers, not direct flame contact, are what actually ignite most homes in a wildfire, and embers do their damage in exactly this zone: landing in mulch, catching a doormat, lighting up a woodpile stacked against the wall.
14 CCR §1298.04(a) / §1299.03(a)(i)Two bands, not one flat rule
The adopted rule splits those five feet into two distinct areas with different requirements:
- The safety zone - the area immediately next to the house, from the wall out to the edge of the eave (or one foot, whichever is farther). This part has to be essentially bare: no vegetation at all. Its width isn't fixed - it flexes with how far your eaves actually extend. A 12-inch eave means a 12-inch safety zone; a 36-inch eave means 36 inches.
- The low-combustibility zone - the remainder of the five feet, out to the property line. Limited, well-maintained vegetation is allowed here: small non-woody plants under specific height and spacing rules, lawn kept under three inches, potted plants in non-combustible containers.
Hover or tap either band below to see what it requires:
Structure
Includes attached decks, stairs, and the space beneath them.
Safety zone, vegetation-free
1 foot from the wall or under the eaves, 2 feet from windows, doors, and vents, 5 feet around an attached deck, stairs, or pergola.
14 CCR §1298.04(b)(6) / §1299.03(d) - Board of Forestry, adopted August 19, 2026, pending final state filing.
Low-combustibility zone, out to 5 feet
Outside that inner buffer, only small non-woody plants are allowed: under 3 inches unrestricted, 3–18 inches only in limited, spaced plantings, potted plants under specified size and spacing limits.
14 CCR §1298.04(b)(7) / §1299.03(d)
The timeline: not everything is due at once
This is the detail most coverage of Zone 0 gets vague about, and it matters if you're trying to figure out what you actually need to do first. The rule phases in existing homes on three different clocks, not one flat deadline:
- Immediately, on the rule's effective date: clearing debris off the roof and out of the gutters, removing dead or dying tree branches, keeping live branches at least ten feet from chimneys and stovepipe outlets, and keeping branches clear of eaves.
- Within three years: everything else in the general no-combustibles rule - mulch, firewood, storage, furniture against the wall - plus removing ladder fuels and keeping tree branches five feet above the roof.
- Within three to five years (the exact deadline is set locally): building out the vegetation-free safety zone described above, replacing combustible fence sections attached to the house, and bringing sheds or outbuildings inside Zone 0 up to non-combustible standards.
New construction has to meet every part of the rule immediately, on the effective date - there's no phase-in for a house that doesn't exist yet.
This is also why a flat to-do list isn't that useful for figuring out what to tackle first. A Zone Zero Check paid report tags every problem it finds with which of these three clocks actually applies to it, so "clear the roof debris" and "replace the fence section" don't read as equally urgent when one of them genuinely isn't yet.
Who it applies to
Zone 0 applies to every property in a State Responsibility Area (SRA), regardless of hazard tier, and to properties in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone within a Local Responsibility Area (LRA). If your property is in a Moderate or High LRA zone, this specific rule doesn't reach you yet, though a local ordinance might still apply - our Free CHECK tells you which situation you're actually in for your specific address.
Where things actually stand right now
A handful of cities and fire districts already have their own, stricter local rules in effect today, regardless of the statewide rule's status - San Diego and Berkeley among them. Check your county's page to see if one applies where you live.
Every citation on this page points at the actual regulation or statute text rather than at coverage of it. If you want to check our work, or see which primary sources each claim rests on, that is all laid out on our sources and methodology page.