Defensible Space

Fire Safe Landscaping

Building Materials

Street Signs and Addresses

Access to Your House

Emergency Water Supply

Smoke Detectors

Portable Fire Extinguishers

Home Sprinkler Systems

Plan Your Escape

Emergency Wildfire Survival Checklist

Your first defense against wildfire is to create a Firewise landscape around your home. This can be achieved by removing flammable vegetation and replacing it with fire resistant plants; spacing the plants in your yard, and clearing away dead leaves on your roof and dry brush around your home.

Be sure to remove dead limbs overhanging your roof and any limb within 10 feet of your chimney. Also, remove pine needles, leaves and other debris from the roof of any structure on the property.

Defensible Space
If you are able to create a Firewise landscape 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. This is the basis for creating a "defensible space" — an area that will help protect your home and provide a safety zone for firefighters battling the flames.

Clearing all flammable vegetation a minimum of 30 feet around your home and other structures will provide you with the greatest chance for survival. But this does not mean you have to live with a ring of bare dirt around your home. You can create a defensible space and also beautify your property.

Adapted from www.firesafecouncil.org