Washoe County, NV Fire Regulations: Brush Clearance (2026)

The Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District (TMFPD) publishes and applies Table 603.2 of the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code (WUI Code) as its defensible space standard. The table sets a fuel modification distance by hazard designation: 30 feet for a Moderate hazard area, 50 feet for High hazard, and 100 feet for Extreme hazard. The district also publishes Figure 603.2, which shows how the fuel modification distance is measured.

Which buildings are covered. The district states that any building or structure built in its jurisdiction on or after August 2013 has been subject to the WUI Code if it was built in an area designated Moderate, High, or Extreme Hazard. Older buildings are treated differently. The district notes that buildings already standing when the code was adopted might not comply with it, and that the code lets those non-complying buildings stay in use as long as they were constructed in accordance with the code in force at the time of construction.

Extra distance. Depending on the water supply available when your building was constructed, your property was possibly required to carry 1.5 times the distance listed in Table 603.2. Footnote a to the table adds a second route to a wider band: distances are allowed to be increased after a site-specific analysis based on local conditions and the fire protection plan.

Owner responsibility. The owner, not the district, is responsible for modifying, removing, and disposing of nonfire-resistive vegetation on the property. If defensible space was required for the construction of the building or structures, it must be maintained for the life of the building. The district defines defensible space as an area, natural or manmade, where material capable of allowing a fire to spread unchecked has been treated, cleared or modified to slow the rate and intensity of an advancing wildfire and to create an area for fire suppression operations.

Trees. Tree crowns extending to within 10 feet of any structure must be pruned to keep a minimum horizontal clearance of 10 feet. Inside the defensible space, limbs located less than 6 feet above the ground surface adjacent to the trees must be removed.