Defensible Space
The first step is to create "defensible space" around your home that is free of dry grass, brush and dead leaves. Firefighters need this area to protect your home from a wildfire. The defensible space should extend at least 30 feet out from your house in all directions. If you live on a hill, you should extend the space out to at least 150 feet because fire moves rapidly up slopes.
If you are able to create a Fire Safe landscape for at least 30 feet around your house (and out to 100 feet or more in some areas), you will reduce the chance of a wildfire spreading onto your property and burning through to your home. But this does not mean you have to live with a ring a bare dirt around your home. You can create a defensible space and also beautify your property.
Fire Safe Landscaping
You can start with the native vegetation around your home. Many of the plants that grow naturally in our area are highly flammable during the summer and can actually "fuel" a wildfire, causing it to spread rapidly through your neighborhood. Removing flammable native vegetation and replacing it with low-growing, fire resistive plants is one of the easiest and most effective ways to create a defensible space. You should select landscape vegetation based on fire resistance and ease of maintenance, as well as visual enhancement of your property. In general, fire resistive plants:
- grow close to the ground;
- have a low sap or resin content;
- grow without accumulating dead branches, needles or leaves;
- are easily maintained and pruned;
- and are drought-tolerant in some cases. Some of the more common species of fire resistive plants are rosemary, African daisy, ice plant and periwinkle.
Contact your fire department or local nursery to find out which fire resistive plants are adapted to the climate in your area. Stay away from unsafe ornamental landscaping plants, such as junipers, which may actually increase the fire risk your home faces.
Other Fire Safe Precautions
After you have removed and/or replaced flammable native vegetation around your home for a minimum of 30 feet, there are other Fire Safe precautions that you should follow, some of which are also required by law:
- Vary the height of your landscape plants and give them adequate spacing. The taller your plants are, the wider apart they should be spaced.
- Remove dead limbs overhanging your roof and any limb within 10 feet of your chimney.
- Work with your neighbors to clear common areas between houses, and prune areas of heavy vegetation that are a threat to both.
- Avoid planting trees under or near electrical lines, where they may grow into or contact the lines under windy conditions, causing a fire.
- If you have a heavily wooded area on your property, remove some of the trees to decrease the fire hazard and improve growing conditions. Also, remove dead, weak or diseased trees and trees with an obvious lean, leaving a healthy mixture of older and younger trees.
- Stack firewood and scrap wood piles at least 30 feet from any structure. And clear away any flammable vegetation within 10 feet of these wood piles. Many homes have survived as a fire moved past, only to burn later from a wood pile that ignited after the firefighters moved on to protect other homes.
- It is recommended that you locate liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanks and any fuel storage containers at least 30 feet from any structure. Clear flammable vegetation at least 10 feet around all such tanks.
- Clear pine needles, leaves or other debris from the roof of your house and any other buildings on your property.
- Check and clean your roof and gutters several times during the spring, summer and fall to remove this debris that can easily ignite from a spark.
Remember that after you have established your fire safe landscape, you must maintain it regularly. If you have any questions about creating or maintaining a defensible space around your home, please feel free to contact us.