Category: Summer Checklist

10 things to move away from your house

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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. 

How to Make a Wildfire Action Plan

Posted on by webflock@blueflamingomarketing.com

It’s an important way to be ready when wildfires happen.

A wildfire action plan is a well-rehearsed series of preparation steps your family agrees to take in the event of a wildfire. It gets everyone on the same page about what to do when an emergency strikes and they need to act immediately.

Your wildfire action plan should include…

  • Establishing a family meeting location outside the fire zone
  • Memorizing/practicing several escape routes from your home/community
  • Setting an evacuation plan for any animals you keep
  • Designating an out-of-area friend or relative to be a single point of contact should onsite family members become separated
  • Keeping fire extinguishers handy and making sure everyone knows how to use them
  • Staying current on fire extinguisher expiration dates
  • Instructions on safely shutting down your home’s gas, electric, and water

Supplies to Include in Your Plan

American Red Cross has some great suggestions for preparing an emergency kit, and we’ve already covered “go bags” on the blog—but all the supplies in town won’t do you any good if you don’t take them with you.

Be sure to include grabbing your go bags as part of your wildfire action plan, as well as bags for anyone who isn’t home when you need to evacuate.

Keep the 6 Ps in Mind

While determining what to include in a wildfire action plan, many people have found it helpful to focus on “The 6 Ps”:

  • People & pets: Nothing is more important than making sure loved ones are out of danger.
  • Papers, phone numbers & important documents: If you have time to grab essential documents like birth certificates, passports, and banking/insurance information, you should.
  • Prescriptions, vitamins & eyeglasses: These are easily replaced but anything vital to your ongoing health should really be in your go bag.
  • Pictures & irreplaceable memorabilia: Gather such items if there’s time, but remember—things are just things and your family’s safety is far more important.
  • Personal computer, hard drive & disks: Again, if you have time to gather such items, go ahead. However, keeping an updated portable hard drive in your go bag is a good way to preserve your data without worrying about equipment. And of course, there’s always the cloud.
  • “Plastic” (credit cards, ATM cards) & cash: You’ll need to make purchases after evacuating your home, so consider including a supply of cash and duplicate cards in your go bag.

Be thorough

Make your wildfire action plan as complete as possible, and be sure to write down every detail. Don’t make the mistake of relying on memory when an evacuation is called and your adrenaline is pumping. Have detailed, printed copies of your plan ready and make sure every member of your family has one.

Download this comprehensive Wildfire Action Plan overview from CAL FIRE to get started. Be sure to tailor it to your own family’s needs.

A wildfire action plan is just one way to get ready, so you can be ready when wildfire strikes.

Tips for Having Fire-safe Summer Fun

Posted on by webflock@blueflamingomarketing.com

Enjoy the warm weather while keeping our community safe

Remember when we talked about how to avoid starting winter fires during the holidays? Well, it’s time to move our discussion into the hot weather of summer and take a look at how to say fire-safe while enjoying your favorite seasonal activities. Check out these tips for summer fire prevention during the holiday and all season long.

A Fire-safe Fourth of July

Let’s start with an obvious one—Independence Day. The last thing you want to do on a hot, dry, Fourth of July is to set off fireworks literally created to throw off embers. 

Rather than setting off fireworks at home, consider going to see a full-scale professional fireworks show, carefully monitored by fire crews. If you’d rather avoid crowds, gather family and friends around a big screen TV and check out one of the great shows streaming every year. There are alternatives for some driveway or backyard fun, too!

  • Bendable Glow Sticks and Bracelets: Kids love charging around, waving these bright and colorful wearables.
  • Lanterns: Have a parade of colorful LED lanterns.
  • DIY Light Show: Decorate with fun red, white, and blue light displays.
  • Blow Bubbles: There are all sorts of fun gadgets available for blowing bubbles these days.
  • Homemade Confetti: Get some colorful, recyclable paper (or punchable leaves) and make some confetti to fill the air on Independence Day.

And here’s a really interesting one—Bubble Wrap®. Everyone loves popping Bubble Wrap. On Independence Day, lay sheets of it on the ground and have fun stomping on it and having little ones ride their tricycles over it. And don’t let your inner environmentalist get upset. Bubble Wrap is completely recyclable—just not in your regular curbside bin. Plenty of stores collect it from the public.

Now, let’s look at some other potentially flammable summer fun.

Fire-safe outdoor activities

Whether it’s camping out, backyard grilling, or setting up a DIY project on the driveway, enjoying some time outside can pose fire risks. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Campfires: Be sure to use Smokey Bear’s rules for campfires, especially the “Drown. Stir. Drown.” method for putting them out.
  • Campsite Cooking: Follow all the safety procedures recommended by the manufacturer of your camping stove.
  • BBQs/Grilling: Do not dump coals. Cover the grill and leave the coals in the grill to cool for 48 hours; then soak them to be sure no hot spots remain before disposing of the ash.
  • Towing Trailers/Boats: Don’t drag chains—they could cause sparks, igniting roadside fires.
  • Power Tools: Enjoy your DIY projects in the damper early hours of the day. Electricity and dry vegetation aren’t a good combination

To put it all in Be Ready, Butte! terms: GET ready to BE ready for a fun and fire-safe summer! For more tips on summer fire prevention, check out our handy seasonal checklists.

Get your FREE Summer Checklist for Defensible Space

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Click to download!

In Butte County, we’ve experienced wildfire at many different times of the year—late fall, the middle of summer, and even in winter. Since we never know when an emergency may come, it’s important to keep your home prepared year-round. 

To help your family get ready for these summer months ahead, we’ve created a FREE Summer Disaster Checklist you can download and tackle with the whole family. Although it’s too hot for climbing around on your roof, there are plenty of other fire preparedness and defensible space actions you can take. For example, you can mow your grass in cool, early mornings before it gets too hot. You can also make sure your plants are watered as often as possible!

Remember: you have to get ready to be ready. Download your Summer Disaster Checklist now!

P.S. Fall is just around the corner. Get all four Seasonal Disaster Checklists here!