Wildfire threats to lives and properties increase as more individuals recreate, operate businesses, and build houses in places where wildlands border urban places.  

Of course, you can’t make your house completely fireproof. However, you can help prepare your property if you take precautions.  

So, what can you do to help protect your property, your house, and your family from wildfires? Well, aside from defensible space services Medford Oregon, here are a couple of tips that you can follow to prepare your yard and house against a wildfire.  

Make a Plan 

You have to familiarize the disaster preparedness plans of your community and make a plan for you and your family. Figure out escape paths from your property and neighborhood and designate an emergency meeting area for your family to join up in case someone gets separated.  

You should have an emergency kit that contains vital documents, such as insurance policies, cash and credit cards, additional eyeglasses, additional house and car keys, prescription meds, baby items, blankets, clothing, fresh batteries for every piece of equipment, work gloves, a flashlight, basic tools, and portable weather radio, and first aid supplies.  

Retrofit or Build a Property Using Non-Flammable Materials 

The kind of materials utilized on the exterior of your house is another line of defense if the wildfire reaches your home.  

  • Ensure that your address is visible from the street 
  • Install noncombustible street signs 
  • Utilize tempered or double-paned glass for every exterior window 
  • Cover exterior walls using fire-resistant materials such as brick, stone, or stucco. Vinyl siding isn’t suggested since it can melt. 
  • Enclose decks’ undersides using fire-resistant materials 
  • Install spark arresters in chimneys 
  • Apply ¼ inch of non-combustible screening to every eave opening or vent 
  • Box in subfloors, soffits, fascias, and eaves using fire-resistant materials such as treated wood. This lowers the size of the vent.  
  • Only utilize non-combustible roofing materials 

Producing Defensible Space 

Produce a zone around your home that will slow down the wildfire and potentially direct it around your property. You’ve got to view your yard as a fuel source to do this. Fire will burn only if fuel is existent. Fuel can be your decks, woodpiles, landscaping, and much more.  

If you want to produce a defensible space, here are a couple of things you can follow. Keep mind that you’ve got to follow these things within 100 feet if your house is on a hillside, 50 feet if you’re located in a heavily treed location, and 30 feet of your house.  

  • Keep the grounds around your house free of pine needles. 
  • Don’t link wooden fences directly to your house. 
  • Store flammable liquids in metal cans. 
  • Move storage tanks and firewood 50 feet away from your house. You should also clean areas surrounding them. 
  • Trim branches so they don’t extend near the chimney or over the roof.  
  • Clear your eaves, gutters, and roof of debris. 
  • Maintain your irrigation system. 
  • Regularly mow your lawn and immediately get rid of debris and cuttings.  
  • Get rid of drying or dead shrubs and trees.