Wildfire
Dry conditions at various times of the year and in some parts of the USA greatly increase the potential for wildland fires.
Protect your home from wildfire. It is your responsibility. Plan in advance and know how to protect buildings in these areas. There are several
safety precautions that you can take to reduce the risk of fire losses. To reduce
the risk, you'll need to consider the fire resistance of your home, the
topography of your property and the nature of the vegetation close by.
Safety Zones Around Your Home
Create a 30-foot safety zone around the house.
Keep the volume of vegetation in this zone to a minimum. If
you live on a hill, extend the zone on the downhill side. Fire spreads
rapidly uphill. The steeper the slope, the more open space you will
need to protect your home. Swimming pools and patios can be a safety
zone and stone walls can act as heat shields and deflect flames. In
this zone, you should also do the following:
- Remove vines from the walls of the house.
- Move shrubs and other landscaping away from the sides of the house.
- Prune branches and shrubs within 15 feet of chimneys and stove pipes.
- Remove tree limbs within 15 feet of the ground.
- Thin a 15-foot space between tree crowns.
- Replace highly flammable vegetation such as pine, eucalyptus,
junipers and fir trees with lower growing, less flammable species.
Check with your local fire department or garden store for suggestions.
- Replace vegetation that has living or dead branches from the
ground-level up (these act as ladder fuels for the approaching fire).
- Cut the lawn often keeping the grass at a maximum of 2 inches.
Watch grass and other vegetation near the driveway, a source of
ignition from automobile exhaust systems.
- Clear the area of leaves, brush, evergreen cones, dead limbs and fallen trees.
Create a second zone at least 100 feet around the house.
This zone should begin about 30 feet from the house and extend
to at least 100 feet. In this zone, reduce or replace as much of the
most flammable vegetation as possible. If you live on a hill, you may
need to extend the zone for several hundred feet to provide the desired
level of safety.
Clear all combustibles within 30 feet of any structure.
- Install electrical lines underground, if possible
- Ask the power company to clear branches from power lines.
- Avoid using bark and wood chip mulch
- Stack firewood 100 feet away and uphill from any structure.
- Store combustible or flammable materials in approved safety containers and keep them away from the house.
- Keep the gas grill and propane tank at least 15 feet from any
structure. Clear an area 15 feet around the grill. Place a 1/4 inch
mesh screen over the grill. Always use the grill cautiously but refrain
from using it all during high risk times.
Other safety measures to consider at the time of construction or remodeling.
- Choose locations wisely; canyon and slope locations increase the risk of exposure to wildland fires.
- Use fire-resistant materials when building, renovating, or retrofitting structures.
- Avoid designs that include wooden decks and patios.
- Use non-combustible materials for the roof.
- The roof is especially vulnerable in a wildfire. Embers and flaming
debris can travel great distances, land on your roof and start a new
fire. Avoid flammable roofing materials such as wood, shake and
shingle. Materials that are more fire resistant include single ply
membranes, fiberglass shingles, slate, metal, clay and concrete tile.
Clear gutters of leaves and debris.
for more information go to http://fema.gov
