If You Are In A Fire Area (insurance, house)

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Some useful hints, if you live in an area of Oregon where there might be a wildfire:

Most important, keep defensible space around your home. If you do a good job of it, you have a very good chance of the fire burning around your property and not touching it.

Encourage your neighbors to maintain defensible space. We've got an entire community here in Central Oregon that organized defensible space and a bad wildfire went completely all around them and didn't get a single home.

The local fire marshal will send some one out to talk to a neighborhood about how to maintain defensible space and he will walk around and point out what you should be doing.

Keep your fire insurance paid up. It is only stuff, and stuff can be replaced.

Have a list of everything that is not replaceable and who is going to pick it up and take it, and have it kept in a state where all you have to do is pick it up and go. That includes having crates for house pets and keeping a trailer for your livestock.

Have a designated meeting place for family members.

Do an occasional practice fire drill for the family. I do practice fire drills for my dogs. They are all trained to run at high speed and jump into my car. Then all I have to do is grab a few items that are packed and ready to go, back up to the travel trailer, and off we go, complete with all equipment I need for the dogs and a place to stay and all the equipment I need to be comfortable.

If you are evacuated, do not stay close by to clog up traffic. Get out of the way.

When you are out, let a family member or friend know where you are and that you are safe.

Take the 5 seconds that it requires to know where the evacuation shelters are located.

If you have elderly or disabled neighbors, make sure they get out.

[kadylady]

Thanks for the post.

[Larry Caldwell]

The first thing to do is clean your gutters. The duff in rain gutters dries out in the summer and makes tinder, which will catch on fire with the first ember and set the eaves of your house on fire.