Queens County, NY Fire Regulations: Wildfire Zones (2026)

Queens County, as part of New York City, contains no designated Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) or high-wildfire-hazard areas. The NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Division of Forest Protection maintains wildfire-prone area maps primarily covering the Catskills, Adirondacks, Long Island Pine Barrens, and parts of the Hudson Valley, but these do not include Queens. The borough is approximately 109 square miles of densely developed urban, suburban, and industrial land with limited undeveloped forested acreage. The largest wooded areas in Queens are Forest Park (538 acres), Alley Pond Park (655 acres), and Cunningham Park (358 acres), which are managed by NYC Parks and Forest Park contains the borough's oldest native oak forest. While technical brush and grass fires can occur in these parks during drought conditions, Queens does not experience the WUI wildfire threats common in California, Arizona, or even parts of upstate New York. FDNY maintains the Special Operations Command and Forestry Division that responds to brush fires when they occur, and the NY State DEC also has jurisdiction. Residents do not need to comply with defensible-space, wildfire hardening, or ember-resistant construction requirements. Standard NYC Fire Code (Title 29 and 3 RCNY) applies to all structures.