The rains this winter brought beautiful flowers and lush vegetation to our desert, but now that the warmer spring temperatures are here, the flowers and grasses are drying up and presenting a fire hazard. Managing editor Tami Roleff offers these tips from CalFire for creating a defensible space around your home…
A defensible space around your property is your home’s best defense against wildfire. Creating and maintaining a defensible space around your home can also help protect firefighters who are defending your property. To better protect your home from wildfires, remove all dead plants, grass, leaves, and pine needles from your yard for at least 30 feet from your home and make sure all vegetation between 30 and 100 feet from your home is cut or mowed to a maximum height of four inches. Trim tree branches so they are at least 10 feet from each other, and from your chimney and roof, and make sure branches are at least six feet off the ground. Remove or prune plants that are near windows. Woodpiles should be stacked at least 30 feet away from buildings.
For more fire safety tips:
https://calfire.ca.gov/communications/communications_firesafety_100feet
https://calfire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/fact_sheets/2007DefSpaceBrochure.pdf
https://calfire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/fact_sheets/checklist.pdf
