Farmington Hills, MI Fire Regulations: Wildfire Zones (2026)

Unlike California's CAL FIRE FHSZ system or Colorado's wildfire risk maps, Michigan does not publish a state-mandated Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) hazard zone map for use in local fire-code amendments. Farmington Hills (Oakland County, southeast Michigan) sits in the most heavily developed corridor of the Lower Peninsula and is climatologically a low-wildfire-risk jurisdiction; the primary local hazard is structure-to-structure spread, addressed through the standard 2015 Michigan Building Code (2015 IBC base + state amendments) defensible-space considerations for one- and two-family dwellings and the Michigan Residential Code (2015 IRC base). The Michigan Department of Natural Resources Forest Resources Division administers the statewide burn-permit program under Part 515 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act (Act 451 of 1994), which incorporates the longstanding Act 119 of 1925 framework. DNR permits are required for open burning on lands under DNR jurisdiction and are not valid inside Farmington Hills city limits (Farmington Hills opts to control open burning more strictly than the state baseline under its Home Rule charter). DNR may suspend burn permits regionally when the Forest Fire Risk Index (Keetch-Byram Drought Index / NFDRS rating) reaches elevated levels - residents and contractors check 'michigan.gov/burnpermit' for current status. Inside Farmington Hills, the controlling rule is the Sec. 12-14 blanket prohibition on open burning except small recreational fires at single-family homes in an approved semi-enclosed device. Michigan also has no state dark-sky law and no California-style defensible-space mandate; vegetation management around structures is left to general property maintenance and code enforcement (Chapter 17 Nuisances) and to the building/fire code's structure-separation rules.