Zone 0

Zone 0 is the first five feet out from exterior walls and attached decks, the band where wind-blown embers land against the house. Every document that names it wants it largely noncombustible: gravel, decomposed granite, pavers, concrete or stone on the ground; no bark, wood chips, rubber mulch or beds of needles; no combustible fence carrying fire into the wall. It is not a planting palette, and a plant this site rates fire-resistant does not belong in it.

Who requires it. IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home removes combustible groundcover within five feet to bare mineral soil and permits named noncombustible hardscape (row), and removes or replaces combustible fence, gate, post and retaining-wall material in the same band (row); bark mulch there fails Essential. California Safer from Wildfires credits a five-foot zone including fencing. CAL FIRE's home-hardening guidance says to replace combustible fencing or gates attached to the structure for the first eight feet. California's Board of Forestry voted on a statewide Zone 0 regulation on 19 August 2026; it was not yet in force at this site's verification (Zone 0 in California, Oregon, Firewise and IBHS). Colorado's 2025 CWRC calls the same band Structure Ignition Zone 1 Immediate and requires noncombustible hard surfaces, with an exception for plantings from an approved list. Oregon's State Fire Marshal advises river rock, gravel or pavers in the five-foot buffer.

Zone 0 is not Oregon R327, and not a Firewise USA criterion. Gravel and pavers are material classes; they carry no OSFM listing and need none. The landscaping hub holds the sourced rows and the fencing hub the documented gates and panels.