Albuquerque Fire Rescue and the IDO encourage defensible space around homes adjacent to the Sandia Mountains and Bosque Rio Grande wildland-urban interface, requiring clearing of dead vegetation and combustible materials within prescribed zones around structures.
Properties bordering the Sandia foothills, Cibola National Forest, and the Bosque Rio Grande are part of the wildland-urban interface. AFR guidance, aligned with the New Mexico Wildland Urban Interface Code, recommends a thirty-foot non-combustible Zone 1 around structures and a one-hundred-foot reduced-fuel Zone 2. Heritage cottonwoods in the Bosque are protected from clear-cutting; defensible space pruning must be done with care. Open Space Division coordinates with property owners on shared boundary clearing. Active enforcement intensifies during red-flag fire weather days.
Failure to maintain defensible space in mapped WUI areas can trigger fire code citations, abatement orders, and cost-recovery liens for city-performed clearing during high-risk conditions.
Albuquerque, NM
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Albuquerque, NM
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See how Albuquerque's defensible space rules stack up against other locations.
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