Ada County, ID Fire Regulations: Propane Storage (2026)

Section 8-2-25(C)(1)(f) states plainly that "Liquefied petroleum gas containers shall not be located within the defensible space in accord with the applicable code as adopted by the state of Idaho," folding the county's wildfire vegetation-clearance rule together with the state's LP-gas installation standards. The defensible space itself runs a minimum of 50 feet from the perimeter of any habitable structure whenever the property undergoes a "modification": new construction or an alteration, move, or change of use. That means a propane tank installed for a new home or major remodel in the WUI Overlay has to sit outside the entire 50-foot ring, not merely clear of the structure itself.

The rule sits inside the same vegetation-control standards that require firewood and other combustible material to be kept at least 20 feet from structures and 15 feet from tree crowns, reflecting the same fire-spread logic: a propane container is treated as a fuel source that cannot be positioned where a wildfire moving through cleared brush could reach it. The WUI Overlay applies to new construction and alterations of habitable structures across the mapped Wildland-Urban Interface district, adopted on the county's Zoning Map under Section 8-2-4 and layered on top of the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code adopted in Title 7, Chapter 2.

Non-habitable accessory structures are otherwise exempt from WUI regulation, but that exemption does not extend to LP-gas siting once a container sits inside a modification's defensible space.