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

Imperial County's wildfire hazard is very low because the landscape is Sonoran Desert and intensively irrigated agriculture, with sparse flammable brush. CAL FIRE and the Office of the State Fire Marshal classify Fire Hazard Severity Zones (FHSZ) as Moderate, High or Very High based on vegetation, terrain, weather and fire history. The 2022 State Responsibility Area (SRA) mapping for Imperial County shows roughly 1,780 acres rated Moderate and zero acres rated High or Very High, an unusually low profile compared with brush- and forest-heavy California counties. Most of the county is not even in the SRA; it falls within the Local Responsibility Area (LRA), where the Imperial County Fire Department, rather than CAL FIRE, is the fire-protection authority. The practical effect is that the strict wildland building and defensible-space rules tied to High and Very High zones, such as the full California Public Resources Code 4291 100-foot defensible-space mandate and the wildland-urban-interface (WUI) construction standards, have almost no footprint in the county. Property owners in or near the limited Moderate SRA acreage should still follow basic fuel-reduction and clearance practices, and all residents remain subject to ICAPCD burning rules and general fire-code and weed-abatement requirements. Buyers should always check a parcel's current FHSZ status with CAL FIRE, since maps are periodically updated.