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Wildfire Safety Sheets |
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Practice Wildfire Safety
People start most wildfires. . . find out how you can promote and practice wildfire safety.
· Contact your local fire department, health department or forestry office for information on fire laws. Make sure that fire vehicles can get to your home. Clearly mark all driveway entrances and display your name and address.
· Report hazardous conditions that could cause a wildfire.
· Teach children about fire safety. Keep matches out of their reach.
· Post fire emergency telephone numbers.
· Plan several escape routes away from your home — by car and by foot.
· Talk to your neighbors about wildfire safety. Plan how the neighborhood could work together after a wildfire. Make a list of your neighbors’ skills such as medical or technical. Consider how you could help neighbors who have special needs such as elderly or disabled persons. Make plans to take care of children who may be on their own if parents can’t get home.
FIRE STOPS WITH YOU
Fire-safe
Landscaping Can Save Your Home: A Factsheet on Rural Fire Safety
and Prevention
Wildland
fires destroy hundreds of homes and acres of land every year across the country.
Fire-safe landscaping is an effective tool that creates an area of defensible
space between your home and flammable vegetation that protects against
devastating fires.
The United States Fire
Administration (USFA) encourages you to keep fire safety at the forefront by
learning how to landscape and maintain your property to minimize possible fire
damage and slow fires if they start. Remember, fire safety is your personal
responsibility... Fire Stops With You!
Defensible
Space Works
During the 1993 raging
Malibu fires, a number of homes were saved as a result of the owners’ careful
pruning and landscaping techniques that protected their homes. In a fire
situation, the deed trees and shrubs surrounding your home act as fuel for fire.
Removing flammable vegetation reduces the threat of fire. Follow these basic
rules to create defensible space that-works.
·
Remove all dead plants, trees and shrubs from the site.
·
Reduce excess leaves, plant parts and low-hanging branches.
·
Replace dense flammable plants with fire-resistant plants.
·
The choice of plants, spacing and maintenance are crucial elements in any
defensible space landscaping plan.
Tips
for a Fire-safe Landscape
·
Create a defensible space perimeter by thinning trees and brush within 30
feet around your home.
·
Beyond 30 feet, remove dead wood, debris and low tree branches.
·
Eliminate small trees and plants growing under trees. They allow ground
fires to jump into tree crowns.
·
Space trees 30 feet apart and prune to a height of 8 to 10 feet.
·
Place shrubs at least 20 feet from any structures and prune regularly.
·
Plant the most drought-tolerant vegetation within three feet of your home
and adjacent to structures to prevent ignition.
·
Provide at least a 10 to 15 foot separation between islands of shrubs and
plant groups to effectively break-up continuity of vegetation.
·
Landscape your property with fire-resistant plants and vegetation to
prevent fire from spreading quickly.
·
Check your local nursery or county extension service for advice on fire
resistant plants that
are suited for your environment.
·
Create fire-safe zones with stone walls, patios, swimming pools, decks
and roadways.
·
Use rock, mulch, flower beds and gardens as ground cover for bare spaces
and as
effective firebreaks.
·
There are no ‘fire-proof’ plants. Select high moisture plants that
grow close to the ground
and have a low sap or resin content.
·
Choose plant species that resist ignition such as rockrose, iceplant and
aloe.
·
Fire-resistant shrubs include hedging roses, bush honeysuckles, currant,
cotoneaster,
sumac and shrub apples.
·
Plant hardwood, maple, poplar and cherry trees that are less flammable
than pine, fir and
other conifers.
Maintain
Your Home and Surrounding Property
·
Maintain a well-pruned and watered landscape to serve as a green belt and
protection against fire.
·
Keep plants green during the dry season and use supplemental irrigation,
if necessary.
·
Trim grass on a regular basis up to 100 feet surrounding your home.
·
Stack firewood at least 30 feet from your home.
·
Store flammable materials, liquids and solvents in metal containers
outside the home at
least 30 feet away from structures and wooden fences.
·
No matter where you live, always install smoke alarms on every level of
your home. Test
them monthly and change the batteries at least once a year. Consider
installing the new
long-life smoke alarms.
For
More Information Contact:
The United States Fire Administration
Office
of Fire Management Programs
16825 South Seton Avenue
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
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