Almost all vegetation will burn in
severe conditions. But if you take
wise actions about the plants around
your home, you will greatly improve
your property’s chances of surviving.
Does this mean cutting down all the trees
and bushes near your house?
No, No, No!
Wildfire safety does not
require a moonscape or
desert!
It means carefully selecting and maintaining
your vegetation to reduce the flames
and heat that come near your buildings.
Remember, everything that can burn is fuel
for a fire. So the less flammable vegetation
near your home, the better.
But plants are also necessary to keep hillsides
stable and prevent soil erosion. And,
of course, they are beautiful and provide
privacy! You can find a balance.
Firefighters call the cleared area around
your home “Defensible Space.” This means
vegetation is cleared back from your home
enough that your home is “defensible” --
able to be defended -- in a wildfire.
A key action to prevent spread of a fire
is separating plants from each other.
This will prevent a fire from jumping
from grass to brush to trees, or
from bush to bush or tree to tree.
1. Vertical separation. Most
fires start near  the ground. If they
stay low, they are much easier to
fight than if they get into treetops.
But heat rises, so fires like to climb
-- from grasses to bushes to trees!
How to prevent this? Keep grass,
bushes, and trees separated:
- Remove grass and weeds below
and near brush or shrubs
- Prune trees high enough that anything burning below them
won’t catch the trees on fire.
Firefighters request that mature trees’
branches be pruned up 10 feet from the
ground, for the above reasons -- and so
they can work beneath them.
2. Horizontal separation. Fires also
spread sideways, of course. This can
happen from direct flame contact or
radiant heat. To prevent this, separate trees
and bushes from each other horizontally.
 Rows of trees or
bushes, just like
wood fences, can
carry fire a long
distance very
fast. Breaking up
rows into sections
will slow down
a fire’s spread.
It’s all about flames. Keeping your
house and other buildings safe means
keeping flames away from them.
As we’ve seen before, those flames can
either (1) rush to your house in a raging
firefront, or (2) drop in from the sky as
burning embers.
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It’s not just common sense . . .
it’s the law!
Because so many homes, and lives,
have been lost to wildfires in recent
years, California law (Public Resources
Code section 4291) requires that all
residents of wildland areas take these
actions to protect their homes:
- Clear all flammable vegetation other than
trees, ornamental shrubs, and green grass
or ground cover out to 30 feet from your
home, or to your property line, whichever
is closer. Reduce the amount of native
vegetation in the 30-100 foot zone.
- Remove all dead branches from trees next
to, or hanging over, any building.
- Remove all tree branches within 10 feet of
a chimney or stovepipe.
- Keep all leaves, needles, and other dead
vegetation off the roof and out of gutters.
These requirements may seem harsh, but
they exist for our sake. Fire engines and air
tankers won’t always be nearby to help,
so we must prepare to help ourselves.
Around which buildings should we clear?
All of those we want to save! |
Fire will run uphill anywhere water
runs down -- and hot and fast!
If you live on a hillside, or at the top
of a canyon, draw, or gulley, your
home is in special danger, and your
clearing distance downhill should be
doubled or even tripled.
The state laws in the column above deal with both situations.
If you properly plant AND maintain the
area within 30 feet of your home, any
flames that do drop in will cause only a low
intensity fire -- one that’s easier to fight.
3. Remove, reduce, and replace
Remove dead trees, dead bushes, and
dead branches. These will burn like torches.
Also remove dry grass, twigs, needles, and
dead leaves on the ground, so burning
embers won’t have the fuel they crave.
Trim trees and bushes back from decks.
Clear under your deck to bare soil.
Reduce flammable wildland trees and
shrubs such as manzanitas and tan oaks.
You may leave a few, but separate them
from each other and keep them trimmed.
Replace flammable plants with less
flammable, ornamental native plants.
Small plants can be very attractive and
will produce much smaller flames. And...
sometimes bare can be beautiful!
Your ultimate goal is a SURVIVABLE
HOME -- one that will survive without
firefighters’ help! If you implement
the suggestions in this paper, your
home will have a very good chance
of surviving on its own. top^
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