Amador County, CA Fire Regulations: Wildfire Zones (2026)

Privately owned unincorporated Amador County land where the state has wildland fire-protection responsibility is the State Responsibility Area (SRA). Within Amador County, the SRA is served by four local fire protection districts — Amador FPD, Jackson Valley FPD, Kirkwood FPD, and Lockwood FPD — alongside CAL FIRE's Amador-El Dorado Unit. CAL FIRE maps Fire Hazard Severity Zones (FHSZ) classifying land as Moderate, High, or Very High; population and development are concentrated along the State Highway 88 corridor from Jackson up to the Pioneer area, with foothill and mountain communities including Pine Grove, Pioneer, Buckhorn, and the Kirkwood/Tahoe-basin area facing significant hazard. The catastrophic 2015 Butte Fire — which started September 9, 2015 east of Jackson when a tree contacted a power line — burned 70,868 acres across Amador and Calaveras counties, destroyed 475 residences and 343 outbuildings, and killed two people, underscoring the county's wildfire exposure. Properties in SRA and Very High FHSZ are subject to PRC 4291 100-foot defensible space and, for new construction, California Building Code Chapter 7A / Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) ignition-resistant building standards. Residents can look up their FHSZ by address through CAL FIRE. The Amador County Planning Department and Office of Emergency Services coordinate wildfire preparedness and evacuation planning.