California Code of Regulations
Title 14 - Natural Resources
Division 1.5 - Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
Chapter 7 - Fire Protection
Subchapter 3 - Fire Hazard
Article 2 - Fire Hazard Reduction Standard for Railroad Right-of-Way
Section 1292 - Definitions

(a) "Agency Having Primary Responsibility for Fire Protection" means any public agency of the federal, state, county, city, city and county, or district government which is the primary agency responsible directly or through contract for fire prevention and suppression on lands within the jurisdiction of that agency.

(b) "Authorized Agent" means any employee of an agency having primary responsibility for fire protection who is authorized to enforce the state's Forest and Fire Laws.

(c) "Distance" shall in all cases herein mean horizontal distance and not slope distance.

(d) "Fire Hazard" means a condition resulting from a combination of factors of ease of ignition, heat yield, and rate of fire spread as influenced by particular vegetation and other flammable materials, weather and slope.

(e) "Flammable Material" shall include, but is not limited to, chips; sawdust; coal; leaves; needles; duff and other dead and desiccated vegetation; and ties which are rotten on exposed surfaces or excessively splintered to the extent they will readily ignite and propagate fire.

"Flammable Material" shall not include:

(f) "Forest-, Brush-, and Grass-Covered Land" means lands covered wholly or in part by timber (trees), brush (shrubs), grass (including grain) or other natural vegetation. Cultivated agricultural lands planted to crops other than grain are not included.

(g) "Operator" means the person or entity responsible for maintenance of the railroad right-of-way.

(h) "Order" means a written mandate issued by an authorized agent of a public agency having primary responsibility for fire prevention hazard reduction of the area to destroy, remove or modify any vegetation or other flammable material in order to reduce or eliminate an existing fire hazard on the railroad right-of-way, pursuant to this Article.

(i) "Railroad-Caused Fire" means those preventable fires resulting from operations upon railroad rights-of-way. May not include unpreventable fires such as caused by wrecks, bombs or natural causes (i.e. lightning).

(j) "Right-of-Way" means the strip of land, outside of yard limits, owned or controlled by the person or entity operating the railroad for a distance not exceeding 100 feet or to the property boundary measured at right angles to the axis of the rail at any given location. The distance shall be measured from the outermost rail on both sides of the mainline or mainlines, on sidings, and also includes intervening strips between sidings and mainlines.

(k) "Towpath" means a narrow strip of right-of-way adjacent to each side of ballast which is commonly referred to as the walkway and is normally kept clear for personnel safety and is not less than six feet from outside rail to outer edge.