Realty Report: Protecting your home during wildfire season

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Wildfire season is upon us, and it’s important to prepare your home and property the best you can. Sadly, wildfires are a reality for Californians. It’s not a question of if they will occur, but when. It’s extremely important that Californians beprepared when wildfire strikes. For this article, I relied on the expertise of our in-house agent, Baxter Boyington. In addition to being a realtor, he also works for the SLO Fire Safe Council as the Focus Group Coordinator.

Jumping in, we’ll discuss the importance of creating and maintaining defensible space and hardening your home by retrofitting it with ignition-resistant or non-combustible materials to protect against the threat of flying embers, direct flame contact, and radiant heat exposure. By preparing your home and property for wildfire you can dramatically increase your safety and the survivability of your home. It is your responsibility to prepare yourself, your family andyour home for when wildfire strikes.

There are three ways your home can be exposed to wildfire: through flying embers, direct flame contact, and radiant heat exposure. Embers are the main cause of homes igniting during a wildfire. Wind can blow embers up to a mile ahead of the wildfire. These flying embers can ignite vegetation or combustible materials near a home resulting in a subsequent fire that spreads to the home through direct flame contact or radiant heat. Direct flame contact is when wildfire burns, unchecked, directly to the building and eventually causes the building to catch fire. Radiant heat exposure occurs when there are materials, vegetation, or other combustibles that are burning close to the home — for a long enough period of time — and generate enough heat to directly ignite the home.

Getting ready for a wildfire begins with two very important efforts: home hardening and defensible space. Hardening your home is retrofitting it with fire-resistant materials. Defensible space is creating and maintaining a buffer between buildings and vegetation to slow wildfire. While not a guarantee that your home will survive a wildfire, these effortsgive it the best chance.

Let’s discuss some of the ways you can retrofit your home to harden it against wildfire. Your roof is the most vulnerable part of your home. Homes with wood shake or shingle roofs are at a high risk of being destroyed in a wildfire. They can be replaced with a Class A fire-rated roof, using materials such as composition, metal, or tile. If replacing your roof isn’t an option, it is good practice to inspect your roof and maintain it by removing debris and plugging all gaps. Vents around your home create openings for fire embers. Consider covering all vent openings with a corrosion-resistant metal mesh screen. You should also consider covering your chimney or stovepipe with similar materials. Eaves and soffits are another point of entry for flying embers. It is a good idea to plug or caulk all gaps greater than ⅛ inch in size with a durable caulk. Decks and fences should be built with ignition-resistant or noncombustible materials when possible. All combustible materials from both underneath and on top of a deck when a wildfire is burning nearby should be removed.Adding screens, enclosing or cleaning out rain gutters will prevent the accumulation of plant debris. Installing weather stripping to eliminate gaps around garage doors prevents embers from flying inside. Clearing and maintaining the vegetation around your driveway to ensure access to your home is very important. Also, having multiple garden hoses that are long enough to reach all the areas of your home is good practice to harden your home against wildfires. 

Creating and maintaining defensible space is essential to reducing the impact of wildfire on your home and property. Defensible space is the buffer created between a building on your property and plants, brush, trees, or other combustible items in the near vicinity. This buffer helps to keep wildfire away from your home by reducing the fire’s intensity and slowing or halting the spread of wildfire. The less there is to burn near your home, the less exposure your home will have to wildfire. Creating this space also provides protection for the firefighters defending your home.

A minimum of 100 feet of defensible space around your home is required by the state of California. However, your hometown will often have more stringent defensible space guidelines to adhere to. Please check with your local fire department or city office for any additional defensible space requirements and best practices.

It takes the combination of both defensible space and home hardening to give your home and property the best chance of surviving a wildfire. Following the above steps could be the deciding factor on whether or not your home will stand against a wildfire. It is important that you are prepared before wildfire strikes.

The information in this article was found in the Cal Fire publication titled “Wildfire Is Coming. Are You Ready? WILDFIRE ACTION PLAN.”

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