This county's two defining wildfires were both set on purpose. You can't control ignition. You can control the first five feet. Mountain and valley parcels sit under different fire authorities. As of September 19, 2026 there is no statewide Zone 0 regulation in force. Ordinance 4489 adopted FHSZ maps, not Zone 0.
Enter your address to check it against the CAL FIRE Fire Hazard Severity Zone map. The same check helps show which fire authority covers this mountain or valley parcel. County-level overlays take precedence over the statewide map where one applies.
The county's record
San Bernardino County's two defining fires were both deliberately set. The Old Fire of October 2003 was arson: 91,281 acres, 1,003 structures destroyed by CAL FIRE's official count, six lives lost, and the mountain hamlet of Cedar Glen stripped of 336 homes. The arsonist was convicted. Twenty-one years later, in September 2024, the Line Fire was arson too: 43,978 acres out of Highland's foothills, more than 36,000 structures threatened, and Running Springs and Arrowbear evacuated whole.
That pattern carries this county's hardest lesson: ignition is not in your control. Not when it's a dry-lightning storm, and certainly not when it's a match. What stayed in homeowners' control, in 2003 and 2024 and in the ember-driven losses at Lake Arrowhead in 2007, was the first five feet at each house. The full record is here; each community page carries only its own verified chapter.
The county map
The San Bernardino Mountains communities, where assistance programs lead the conversation and every page carries its own real history.
Where the cities meet the front country: real designations, real fire authorities, and no borrowed stories.
What must I do?
The rule is simple to state and hard to retrofit: nothing combustible in the first 5 feet from any structure. Combustible fences and gates touching the house, bark mulch against the foundation, woody shrubs under windows, firewood stacked on the deck (a mountain habit worth breaking now). The Grass Valley Fire proved the mechanism in this county's own backyard: most of the 174 homes lost near Lake Arrowhead ignited from embers or from house to house, not from the flame front. Read the full requirements, or start with the two most common projects: fences and gates and landscaping.
Who enforces it?
San Bernardino County splits fire authority half a dozen ways. The San Bernardino County Fire Protection District is the giant: it annexed the city of San Bernardino's fire department in 2016 and Crestline's district in 2015, and serves Lake Arrowhead, Wrightwood, and most unincorporated territory. CAL FIRE serves Highland and Yucaipa under contract. Running Springs fields its own department, Big Bear has the Big Bear Fire Department, and Redlands and Rancho Cucamonga self-operate. Your community's page names yours. Statewide Zone 0 is Proposed — not in force.
Questions
Mountain and valley parcels sit under different authorities. County Fire covers district territory including the city of San Bernardino, Crestline, Lake Arrowhead, Wrightwood, and most unincorporated land. Highland and Yucaipa are CAL FIRE contract; Running Springs, Big Bear, Redlands, and Rancho Cucamonga run their own departments. Check the parcel.
No. Ordinance 4489 (June 10, 2025) adopted LRA Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps. That is a map adoption, not Zone 0. This site does not treat FPD 26-02 as a countywide existing-home Zone 0 rule, and does not apply a Redlands ordinance to the rest of the county.
As of September 19, 2026 there is no statewide Zone 0 regulation in force. The Board of Forestry emergency filing (OAL 2026-0828-03E) was withdrawn September 8, 2026. AB 3074 directed the state to create an ember-resistant zone; that is not a current statewide rule requiring Zone 0 to be kept clear. Existing defensible-space law still applies: PRC section 4291 and Government Code section 51182, plus local defensible-space rules. County fire did adopt the new hazard maps by Ordinance 4489 on June 10, 2025. Maps are not Zone 0.
Submit your address and we will follow up about which local rules apply to your parcel, what your fire authority will look for, and what an inspection would document.
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