Cowlitz County, WA Fire Regulations: Wildfire Zones (2026)

1 to set its own wildfire risk framework rather than the model code's default. Under that amended section, every area of the county is assigned a risk category relative to the rest of the county, using the National Hazard and Risk Model, known locally as No-HARM, that the county commissioned from Anchor Point, LLC and dated July 1, 2016. The five categories are Non-Rated, Low, Moderate (also called Medium), High, and Very High (also called Extreme). 2. A parcel rated in a higher-risk category faces a correspondingly higher required fire flow before a building permit can be finalized, while the code frames the risk categories as a voluntary framework: builders can choose among several listed methods, including sprinklers, dry hydrants, larger setbacks or defensible space, to meet or reduce the flow requirement rather than being locked into one fixed mandate.

Because the No-HARM model rates land relative to other Cowlitz County land rather than against a fixed statewide scale, the same construction project can face different fire-flow math depending strictly on where in the unincorporated county it sits, and the Department of Building and Planning determines the applicable category for a given parcel during permit review.