OSFM listing is usually voluntary

California OSFM listing is voluntary for most WUI products. The 2 September 2025 WUI handbook says products that are not on the Building Materials Listing can still meet the prescriptive WUI rules, because listing is not a statutory mandate. Absence from the handbook is not a ban. Presence is not a permit. The authority having jurisdiction (the building official) still decides. FireApproved is not the official.

You are searching the OSFM handbook and not finding a product. Missing from the handbook is not a ban.

Why it matters

People treat the handbook as a shopping list and a ban list. Then they reject mesh, gravel, or dual-pane glass because those objects have no listing ID. Or they treat a screenshot of a listed model as a permit. During a wildfire, embers enter the opening you actually built. The stamp is on the drawing and the field install, not on a handbook row.

A test method is not a listing. A listing is not adopted code. Adopted code is not an HOA spec or an insurer checklist. How to read a listing is the layer map. This page is the voluntary-listing layer.

How it works

A listing body publishes a named model, an ID, a date, and a category. OSFM’s program is the Building Materials Listing. The WUI Listed Products Handbook is the printed slice people mean by “Cal Fire listed.” Search the live index on GOVmotus. Do not spec from a screenshot. Listings change. OSFM can remove a product for cause.

The 2 September 2025 handbook groups ten categories:

Gravel is not in that table. Gutter covers are not in that table. Hardware-store mesh is not an 8165 row. Those absences are not bans.

OSFM reviews test data that applicants submit. It does not inspect your lot. The handbook says the local building official may accept or refuse a product in that jurisdiction. A listed assembly must still be installed per the listing and per the adopted code.

The handbook’s General note still names Chapter 7A. As of 1 January 2026 the live California book is CWUIC. Same idea: unlisted can still be prescriptive. See OSFM BML and Oregon R327 versus California CWUIC.

The rules

1. Prescriptive path. The adopted code names a material or a size. You follow that recipe. You do not need an OSFM ID for that piece. CAL FIRE’s home-hardening page and IBHS Essential both allow 1/16–1/8 inch metal mesh on many vents as that path. Oregon R327, where adopted, has its own recipes for roofs, walls, glass, and vents. See mesh versus listed vents.

2. Performance path. You replace the object with a named model tested to the method the code or the listing program names. For vents that is often ASTM E2886 and OSFM category 8165. The listing is the model, not the brand. Example records on this site include BrandGuard gable vents and Vulcan gable vents. Open the product page. Follow the listing URL. Match the model. A listing is not a permit.

3. Local drawing practice. Deschutes County will accept products from the OSFM handbook for R327 when you list those products on the drawings and note where they install (county R327 page). That is local practice. It is not a rewrite of Oregon code. It is not California CWUIC. See show the product on the drawings.

4. Alternate method. The building official can still accept an alternate. Oregon R104.11 exists. That is a conversation with the official, documented on the drawings.

5. Private spec and insurer checklist. An HOA can require a listed vent where the adopted code allows mesh. IBHS can require Zone 0 where the adopted code has not. Those are real constraints. They are not a listing mandate and not a permit. IBHS does not replace adopted code.

Decomposed granite is a material-class record on this site. It has no OSFM listing ID on purpose.

What people mix up

• Treating unknown as illegal. Unlisted can still be prescriptive.
• Treating listed as permitted. The handbook records a product; the building official issues the permit.
• Writing a brand name and calling it a listing. The listing is a model.
• Looking for an OSFM ID on gravel, pavers, or a gutter cover. This site has no gutter listing IDs from the 2025 handbook we parsed.
• Importing a “listed vents only” California drawing note onto an Oregon R327 job unless the official asked for that path.
• Treating Deschutes County’s handbook path as statewide Oregon law.
• Specifying from a screenshot or an expired listing.
• Calling OSFM “Oregon’s fire marshal.” It is California’s Office of the State Fire Marshal.
• Collapsing listed, tested, and adopted into “approved,” or into “FireApproved approved.” This site is not a listing body.

How to check

1. Name the adopted code for the lot. If none, you are in voluntary hardening, an HOA spec, or an insurer checklist.
2. Name the path for each opening or covering: prescriptive, listed assembly, unvented, or a coded exception.
3. If the path is listed, open the live GOVmotus record. Match manufacturer, model, category, and orientation to the drawing. Put that model on the sheet.
4. If the path is prescriptive, write the recipe (mesh size, glass type, roof class, groundcover). Do not invent a listing ID to make the sheet look official.
5. Confirm the building official. FireApproved records the layers. It does not stamp the job.

Limits

This page does not decide what your building official will stamp. It does not list every handbook row. Empty product tables on this site are not bans. Two 8165 examples are not a shopping catalog. The handbook also covers siding, roofing, doors, decking, and eaves. Confirm the live listing and the adopted code. FireApproved is not the AHJ.

Related: vents, landscaping, OSFM BML.