AVENUES, Utah — For five years, Avenues homeowner Ruth Zimmer has looked down at the steep hillside below her Avenues home and worried about what could happen if it catches fire.
Zimmer, an anesthesiologist, moved into her home in 2021. Since then, she says she has repeatedly contacted city departments trying to figure out who is responsible for clearing dead wood, fallen limbs and other vegetation on the slope near her property.
“I just feel like it’s a hazard that somebody’s got to pay attention to,” Zimmer said.
Her concern is not simply about an untidy hillside. Zimmer says the slope contains years of accumulated dead vegetation and timber, much of it on land she does not believe she has the legal authority to clear herself.
That has turned her concern into a years-long search for responsibility.
Zimmer said she first contacted the Salt Lake City Fire Department in 2021. In a written timeline she later provided, she said the fire marshal told her the land appeared to be unplatted and could fall under city or state responsibility. That account has not been independently confirmed by FOX 13.
Years later, she contacted Salt Lake City’s Urban Forestry Division. Emails show an arborist initially told Zimmer surrounding properties appeared to be privately owned and asked her to clarify which trees she believed were on public land. After Zimmer said the fire department had told her the area was city-owned, the arborist wrote that she had asked the city surveyor to confirm ownership.
Zimmer also filed a formal request through the city’s MySLC system in November 2025.
Then, this summer, she received what appeared to be the clearest answer yet.
In an email, the office of Salt Lake City Councilmember Chris Wharton told Zimmer that the parcel just north of her property “should be maintained by the City.” The office also told her the city did not currently have money in the budget to hire a contractor to maintain the property and was looking for additional funding.
Zimmer said the response was encouraging, but after five years, she is running out of patience.
“They said that’s our land and we just don’t have the money in the budget,” Zimmer said. “We’ve been here for five years. I don’t know how patient we’re supposed to be.”
Salt Lake City Fire officials told FOX 13 they cannot settle the property ownership question. But, they can speak to the potential danger posed by dead vegetation.
“From a fire fuel perspective, absolutely, fallen vegetation is fuel for a fire,” a fire department spokesperson said, adding that the area is adjacent to a wildland interface.
The department has not conducted a formal assessment of Zimmer’s specific hillside.
Her concerns, however, come as Salt Lake City Fire is updating its Community Wildfire Protection Plan, a broader effort to identify areas where wildfire mitigation may be needed and prioritize future work.
The department is asking residents to identify areas they believe could pose a wildfire risk. Officials say those locations can be considered as part of the plan and could help the city seek mitigation strategies and outside funding.
“Absolutely we would like the public’s input on any of those areas so that we can get them into our plan, that we can seek some mitigation strategies, we can seek some mitigation funding,” the fire department spokesperson said.
For Zimmer, that could provide another route to bring attention to a hillside she has been raising concerns about since shortly after moving into the neighborhood.
She says she is less concerned about which government entity ultimately takes responsibility than whether someone takes action before there is a fire.
“I just hold my breath and hope that there’s nobody in there with matches,” Zimmer said. “No lightning strikes. It’s just a pause and a hope that nothing happens.”
