How to Protect Your Property from a Wildfire
Summer is the season of wildfires, threatening both homes and lives. But there steps you can take to protect yourself in the event that one starts. Here are some ways you can save your property from a wildfire.
Create a Defensible Space Around Your Home
Defensible space is a zone around your home designed to slow down or redirect wildfire. This space should stretch out in a circular shape to a minimum of 30 feet from your house. Clear away any combustible debris in this area; such as dry grass, wood piles, bushes or dead trees. Keep trees and shrubs pruned, and make sure no tree branches extend over or near your roof. Grow vegetation that is less likely to catch fire (plants that are compact and low to the ground are good to halt a fire’s path) and get rid of any weeds near the house.
Make Your Home Fire Resistant
While defensible space is the best tool to protect your home from a wildfire, it is not completely fool-proof. There’s always a possibility that a wildfire can pass the defensible space and reach your house. In this event, your best line of defense is making your home itself fire resistant. Ensure your home’s eaves and vent opening are properly secured so no embers can enter inside, and clear your roof, gutters, and eaves from any combustible debris. Consider investing in drapes that are more heat resistant and shutters that are non-combustible. If you are designing your home or remodeling, plan for it to be flame resistant from the ground up with non-combustible roofing materials and exterior walls, tempered or double paned windows, and no wood decks or fences connected to your house’s exterior.
Make a Plan and Be Aware
Be sure to have an evacuation plan for you and your family if a wildfire does reach your home, and make yourself aware and familiar with your neighborhood’s disaster preparedness plans. Every step you take before a wildfire even begins gives your home a better chance of survival. Wildfires can occur anywhere with enough combustible material, so you can never be too safe in preparing.
Do you have any questions or concerns? Contact Disaster Professionals today for help and advice on how to make your home more fire resistant.