There are a number of things you can do to protect your home from wildfires, some of them quite simple, others a bit more involved.
Why homes burn during wildfires & what you can do to prevent it
Contrary to what many believe, most homes are not set ablaze by a wildfire’s flames, but by flying embers that somehow get inside the house or land on combustible material around your home that then ignites and spreads to the house. If you’ve ever seen one of those videos of a harrowing escape from a wildfire, you might remember a scene where a shower of sparks is flying diagonally across the road–millions upon millions of them, like droplets of fire rain.
Imagine taking a large fountain firework display, lighting the fuse, and then aiming it directly at your house so that it’s shooting a stream of hot sparks against your home. Now imagine lighting several of these at once so that they’re shooting a stream of hot embers over every inch of its surface. This is akin to what your home can be subjected to if a wildfire sweeps through. If one of those embers gets inside the house or lands in a place where it ignites something on fire, your home will go up in flames.
Protecting your home from wildfires also involves managing the space around your home. The more flammable material there is near your house, the higher the odds these things will catch fire and set your home ablaze. Doing things to create a barrier of defensive space around your home can keep a wildfire at bay.
How to protect your home from wildfires
Here are some things you can do to make your home more wildfire resistant:
1) Maintain a 100-foot perimeter of ‘defensive space’ around your home; an area that is regularly mowed and maintained and kept free of dead or decaying vegetation. More is even better. “I don’t stop at 100 feet,” says Carrie Shreffler, a retired Kern County firefighter. “I clear everything around my ranch out to 500 feet. Defensible space is the most effective tactic I’ve seen for protecting property. (Caperton-Morton, 2020) There should be space between shrubs and trees and plenty of clearing that’s going to create a fuel-free island around your home.
2) Trim away all trees and shrubs that come within 10 feet of your house. Many people like planting bushes and trees right up against their house, but these can become like kindling for your home. If you don’t want to get rid of them, be sure to keep all nearby bushes well-watered so that they aren’t dry and easy to ignite.
3) Clean out the area underneath your porch, and avoid storing anything flammable there. These often overlooked nooks and crannies can become repositories for leaves, trash, and dried vegetation. If you add a wood pile or some other flammable material there, you’ve essentially got the same conditions used when intentionally trying to ignite a campfire: easily combustible material underneath more hefty flammable wood, with your house sitting directly on top.
4) If you keep a woodpile, move it at least 30 feet beyond the perimeter of your home.
5) Remove all leaves and other debris from the gutter of your roof.
6) Use caulk to seal any gaps around your window and door frames, since a spark could wedge itself into these nooks and crannies and start a fire.
7) Replace flammable doormats with heavy rubber or metal grates.
8) Regularly rake up leaves and dry vegetation from around your house.
9) Keep all yard plants well-watered, and clear away any that are diseased or dying.
10) Keep your driveway clear of oily residue or any other flammable substance.
Defending your home against a wildfire
If you’re evacuating your home from a nearby fire, or trying to defend it against an encroaching fire (which is dangerous and isn’t recommended, and certainly isn’t something you should do with your children), here are some additional steps to take:
1. Close all windows. Do this at the f9rst sign that a wildfire is even remotely in your vicinity, because you might not have the time to do it later (or may be so rushed you don’t remember).
2. Close your garage door and any other doors to your home or other structures.
3. Place sand against the bottom of doors to seal any gaps where a spark might get in.
4. If your yard has a sprinkler system, turn it on.
5. Water down any trees or bushes near your home, if you have the time.
6. Hose down the roof and walls of you home. Ideally you should try to set up portable sprinklers so they aim at your house and roof. If you can do it safely, secure a portable sprinkler onto the roof itself, (ideally one of those that goes back and forth in a rainbow arc), so that it sprays water all over your roof, which then runs down into gutters or along the side of your home. Turn this on either before you evacuate or as the fire approaches to conserve water.
7. Bring all flammable doormats inside, along with any patio furniture, picnic tables, or anything else that might catch fire. Store them in your garage.
Additional information to protect your family from wildfires:
References:
Caperton-Morton, M. (2020) “How to stay,” Science News, May 9, Vol. 197(9): 28-32