601 General — 2025 California Wildland-Urban Interface Code

The provisions of this chapter establish general requirements for new and existing buildings, structures and premises located within wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas .

The objective of this chapter is to establish minimum requirements to mitigate conditions that might cause a fire originating in a structure to ignite vegetation in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) area, and conversely, a wildfire burning in vegetative fuels to transmit fire to buildings and threaten to destroy life, overwhelm fire suppression capabilities or result in large property losses.

Where used in this chapter, the term listed below shall be defined as follows:

DEFENSIBLE SPACE. The buffer that landowners are required to create on their property between a “Building or Structure” and the plants, brush and trees or other items surrounding the “Building or Structure” that could ignite in the event of a fire. [CCR Title 14 §1299.02(a)]