Flammable items to keep away
When it comes to protecting your home from fire and flying embers, it’s essential to keep a “safety moat” around your house. In other words, space around your house with nothing to burn, so fire can’t get to it.
Do you really mean nothing?
Sure do. With fire, there’s no taking chances. Move the following away from the five feet immediately surrounding your home:
Home Defensible Space at Your Front Door
- Firewood: It’s every bit as dangerous as it is convenient to have firewood close to your house.
- Wood Furniture: This includes any flammable furniture you have. Bonus points if you can swap to a non-combustible deck.
- Trash/Recycling Containers: Containers can severely melt and inside, the contents can burn.
- Window Boxes: Keep those flammable flowers, plants, herbs, and containers inside the window.
- Wooden Trellises: Non-combustible trellises are okay, just don’t let anything grow on them.
- Arbors: Grapevines are a nice touch in Northern California, but wildfire embers can turn them into decorative fuses.
- Potted Plants: Those plants can easily guide flames toward your house.
- Combustible Fencing/Gates: Don’t start a line of burnable fence or gating any closer than 5 feet from your house.
- Vehicles: Cars, boats, RVs, or anything else with gasoline shouldn’t extend into Zone Zero.
- Decorative Signs/Flags: Make these decorative statements away from the house, where they can be better seen anyway.
While moving these items may seem a little inconvenient, the good news is five feet isn’t too far. You can still enjoy a beautiful home and yard in Zone 1 and Zone 2.