Bellingham, WA Fire Regulations: Wildfire Zones (2026)

Bellingham sits where the western foothills of the Cascades meet Bellingham Bay, with Chuckanut Mountain to the south and the Lake Whatcom drainage to the east. The City and Whatcom County jointly manage 12,205 acres of combined forestland in the Lake Whatcom watershed under the 2024 Lake Whatcom Watershed Forest Management Plan, which expressly identifies increasing resilience to wildfire as a planning goal. Bellingham Fire Department holds a contract with the Whatcom Conservation District for wildfire risk reduction and outreach to landowners adjacent to City-owned WUI parcels. A 2019 wildfire on Chuckanut Mountain threatened homes in the foothill neighborhoods and is the most recent significant WUI incident inside the city's immediate fire shed. Inside Bellingham city limits the 2021 Washington Wildland-Urban Interface Code (WAWUIC, intended for adoption at WAC 51-55) is not currently in force - SB 6120 and an emergency rule by the Washington State Building Code Council delayed adoption until the Department of Natural Resources develops and publishes new statewide wildfire-hazard and base-level wildfire-risk maps under RCW 19.27.560. Wildfire rules in the City of Bellingham today come from: (1) BMC Chapter 17.20 adoption of the 2021 Washington State Fire Code (including recreational-fire, open-burning, and IFC Chapter 49 Wildland-Urban Interface provisions); (2) NWCAA's permanent residential burn ban inside the urban growth area and Stage 1/Stage 2 burn calls; (3) the cooperative Whatcom Conservation District / Bellingham Fire program; and (4) DNR fire-restriction declarations under RCW 76.04 during the statewide fire-protection season (typically April 15 - October 15).