Kirkland, WA Fire Regulations: Wildfire Zones (2026)

Kirkland regulates construction in its wildland-urban interface areas through Chapter 21.50 KMC, which adopts the 2021 International Wildland-Urban Interface Code (IWUIC) as amended by the State Building Code Council in Chapter 51-55 WAC. KMC 21.50.020(a) carries over IWUIC Section 101.2, Scope, providing that the code applies to the construction, alteration, movement, repair, maintenance and use of any building, structure or premises within the wildland-urban interface areas in the city. Buildings or conditions already in existence and legal when the code was adopted may continue, so long as the continued use doesn't create an egregious danger to life or property; anything moved into or within Kirkland has to meet the new-construction standard.

Retroactivity is addressed separately in KMC 21.50.020(b), carrying IWUIC Section 101.4: the code generally applies only to conditions arising after adoption, except that provisions specifically written to apply to existing conditions do reach them, and the code official can also reach an existing condition determined to be an egregious hazard to life or property. Kirkland did not adopt IWUIC Chapter 1's own administrative procedures; instead the city substitutes its Construction Administrative Code, KMC Chapter 21.06, so wildfire-code permits and enforcement follow the same permit process as the rest of the building code.

That administrative chapter adds a wildfire-specific submittal requirement: KMC 21.06.275(1)(G) requires site plans for structures in wildland-urban interface areas to show topography, the width and percent grade of access roads, landscape and vegetation details, the location of structures or building envelopes, existing or proposed overhead utilities, occupancy classification, the type of ignition-resistant construction for buildings and their appendages, roof classification, and the site's water supply system, before a building permit can issue.