Rebuilding After the Spokane Fires — What Energy Code Applies?

Quick answer: A permit to rebuild a home lost in the 2026 Spokane Complex Fire is a permit for new construction. New construction complies with the codes in force on the date you apply, not the codes your original house was built under. For most fire-affected homes — many built decades ago — that means the full 2021 Washington State Energy Code (WSEC-R) applies: current envelope R-values, air sealing, high-efficacy lighting, and the Section R406 additional energy credits.

Your rebuild permits as new construction

It is a natural assumption that rebuilding a house restores it to whatever code it originally met. That is not how permitting works. The energy code that applies to a project is the one in force when the permit application is submitted, and a rebuild application is a new-construction application — the fact that a house stood on the lot before does not carry its old code compliance forward.

A home originally built in, say, 1994 does not rebuild to 1994 code. It rebuilds to the 2021 WSEC-R, the energy code currently in force in Washington State, in full. That covers the building envelope (insulation, windows, air sealing), high-efficacy lighting, mechanical equipment efficiency, and the Section R406 energy credit requirement that most single-family projects use to demonstrate compliance.

How many R406 credits your rebuild needs

The R406 credit total you have to reach depends on your home’s size tier — small, medium, or large by conditioned floor area and fenestration area — not on what the original house had. A rebuild that comes back larger or with more glazing than the original can land in a different tier with a different credit requirement. See how many credits do I need? for the tier table and where the credits come from.

The practical upside of building back to current code

Meeting the 2021 code is not only a permit requirement. A tighter envelope, better windows, and the air-sealing target the code requires produce a home that costs noticeably less to heat and cool than the one that burned, especially if the original was built well before current insulation and air-leakage standards existed.

It is also the right moment to right-size the mechanical equipment rather than replace it like-for-like. The tonnage of the old furnace or heat pump was sized for the old envelope. A tighter, better-insulated rebuild has a smaller heating and cooling load, and installing the old equipment’s tonnage in the new house usually means paying for oversized equipment that cycles more and costs more than a unit sized off a Manual J calculation for the actual new structure.

City of Spokane’s rebuild process

The City of Spokane has streamlined several steps for wildfire-affected homeowners:

• Demolition permit fee reduced to $35, with the processing fee and technology fee waived for homeowners of wildfire-affected properties.
• EPA household-hazardous-material removal at no cost — the EPA is surveying, removing, and disposing of household hazardous materials from burned properties on FEMA’s request.
• Asbestos survey and a Notice of Intent (NOI) to the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency are required before debris removal and before the City issues a demolition or building permit. NOI fees are waived for those affected by the fires.
• Retained plans for newer homes. The City has electronic construction documents on file for homes built between mid-2020 and 2026. If your home’s original permit was approved after February 1, 2021, those plans can transfer directly to your rebuild permit rather than being redrawn from scratch.

Full detail and current contacts: the City’s wildfire rebuilding page and its announcement of the first rebuild permit issued following the Spokane Complex Fire.

Getting the paperwork your permit needs

Whichever compliance path your rebuild takes, the building department will want to see your R406 credit selections documented. wsec.ai’s wizard walks through the same credit categories the WSU C3 spreadsheet covers and produces the WSEC-R credit compliance paperwork your permit application needs for $19. The wizard shows you where your credit total stands against your size tier — it does not decide pass or fail. Your building official has final authority over what clears your permit.

Manual J load calculations are a separate document your permit may also need for HVAC sizing. They are handled by theplansexaminer.com, a sister site under the same operator, and sold directly on wsec.ai at /manual-j.

Wildfire-affected properties get 50% off any report on wsec.ai and on theplansexaminer.com, through the end of 2027. Email hello@wsec.ai with your jobsite address and we’ll send you the discount code — no documentation needed, the address is enough.