Assessing your property for potential wildfire vulnerabilities starts with an understanding of your natural and built environments. Taking steps to mitigate your risks comes next.

Photo Credit: wildfirerisk.org

Here are ten considerations any facilities operator, building or homeowner should look at to mitigate risk as part of wildfire mitigation and a Defensible Space strategy.

1) Check your priorities and your budget.
It’s well documented that it’s far less expensive to mitigate before a fire than it is to lose everything and rebuild afterward.

2) Check your community preparedness.
Yes, you can take all the steps necessary to mitigate but if your neighbours don’t or community doesn’t plan or take action, those shortfalls can directly impact you. It’s good to be involved, to inspire and motivate your community.

3) It starts at the top: Check your roof and clear any loose debris. Make sure any roof openings (anywhere embers can get into) are sealed or screened. Using 1/8” metal screens in any openings, ensuring flashings and sealants are installed properly, clearing any debris from your gutters and screening attic or roof vents is crucial. If you currently have a wood shingle roof and have the budget to replace it, do so with a non-combustible roof type. Change wooden roof top decks and railings to raised porcelain or concrete tile decking and metal railing systems. Ensure any rooftop mounted electrical or natural gas equipment is maintained annually. Rusty gas lines, open electrical junction boxes, debris collected under this equipment and missing screens must be dealt with and maintained.

4) As you inspect the vertical walls of your building, be sure to assess your windows. Single pane windows heat up and break at about 1/4 the amount of heat of tempered glass windows. If they do break in the event of heat generated by a wildfire, then the fire could easily find a path to all the combustibles inside your home. Any attachments to your home also need to be assessed. Wooden exterior decorative shutters, wood planter boxes, wood eves, wood siding and wood columns: these are all candidates for replacement with similar non-combustible products.

5) As you move to the immediate perimeter of your building, look for any wind driven dead foliage debris laying up against your exterior walls. Look for this under your bay window build-outs, under front steps and within any low shrubs planted closely to the exterior walls. Clean it all up and have it disposed of properly.

6) Examine your exterior furniture. Have you got wicker patio chairs? Have you got cushions on these chairs? Do you have wicker brooms leaning up against your home or garage? Are you piling up wood logs and kindling? Consider purchasing non-combustible patio furniture with mesh seating rather than wood or wicker furniture with cushions. Consider metal storage solutions for firewood and any combustible garden tools. Remove any bark mulch and consider lining the immediate 3-5 foot perimeter of your home with gravel instead of mulch or low/dense hedges.

7) As you move away from your immediate walls, what does your fencing look like? Is it made of wood? Does the grass grow up against it? Does debris collect against its base when it’s windy? Is the fence covered in vines? Consider replacing your fence with a non-combustible alternative. Also consider assessing any of your outbuildings as well especially if they are in close proximity to your main building.

8) Tree care is so essential to wildfire mitigation. Many wildfires continue to spread quickly by flames and embers hopping from one tree crown to another. Ensure a healthy thinning of the trees on your property. Create space between each tree and ensure adequate distance of your trees from your buildings. Spiraling cedar hedges are beautiful but fire can travel vertically through the hedges and up into any overhangs or soffits. Be sure to keep the trees in check. They’ll appreciate you for this!

9) Clear any land up to your property line. Remove any debris and dry underbrush and tall wild grasses and saplings that spring up between the older managed vegetation. Again, consider gravel in your garden beds.

10) Ensure your entire property is well irrigated to avoid having any dry underbrush or dead grass where embers can fall and ignite a fire. Maintain this irrigation and understand its operation and limitations. As seen recently in the Pacific Palisades and Eaton Fires in Los Angeles, we cannot count on continuity of municipal water supply in wildfire events.

Some additional tips: If you need to evacuate due to a wildfire, be sure to turn off any HVAC equipment to avoid drawing any outside air into your structure and download any emergency alert apps so you can be notified of any evacuations when you need to. These are often available through your municipality’s website.

Fire Hardening

To establish a defensible space around your home or building for wildfire safety, we encourage you to access detailed information from Cal Fire here: www.readyforwildfire.org

If you’d like assistance from a Certified Wildfire Mitigation Specialist for your property, you can contact Wildfire Mitigation Advisors here: wildfiremitigationadvisors.com

With training and earned associated certification through the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), we (Costo Construction Corp.) can also consult. Further, and importantly, we build the right team of specialized, licenced contractors to execute the work and assign the related pricing to the required improvements. We also help you build priorities and schedules. Where complete replacements of materials are not realistic or affordable, we can work with you to suggest alternatives to make improvements wherever most impactful. We also provide comprehensive photographic reports before and after work evaluations, written cost estimates and schedules for immediate or phased work, again, respecting your priorities.

Feel free to reach out to us anytime to get a conversation started and so we can all learn more and work toward the improvements you’d like to make and eventually get you the peace of mind you’re looking for.