Oregon Fire Season (Oakland: house, neighborhood, contractor)

[Larry Caldwell]

PNW-type-gal mentioned fire resistance of Hardiplank, which got me to thinking about the fact that now is the time to prep for this summer's fire season. Cement board is nicely protective, but vinyl windows are not. Get those shrubs away from the house and plant tulips instead. Remove any trees that overhang the house. Remove ladder fuels that will feed the fire into tree crowns. 3-tab shingles are nicely fire resistant, but dry moss is not. Get it off the roof. You may think you are golden with a metal roof, but a gutter full of duff is just tinder waiting to catch on fire and light the eaves.

The more there is to burn, the bigger the defensible zone needs to be. If you are in a forest that can produce a 50' high wall of fire, you need to be at least 100' from it. If you have a long rural driveway, be aware that fire fighters will not bring an engine in where it can be trapped by flames, so prune trees and brush away from the driveway and make sure they have a turnaround.

If you live in town, urban fire departments do a pretty good job of fire protection, but if a wildfire gets started and the wind blows, nothing stands in front of it. If you look at the experience of Colorado Springs and Oakland, wooden fences, wood shake roofs and neighborhood trees are how the fire traveled.

This is the time of year to contact a tree service or landscape contractor.

[PNW-type-gal]

There are a couple good guides:

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/sor...re_web-res.pdf

Defensible Space - Ready For Wildfire

and if you live in a rural area, this is not just a "good idea" - it's required. When we were living south of Crater Lake, we got a letter (pretty sure it was from the state, because I can't see Klamath County being that proactive) saying that we needed to comply with rural defensible space regulations or we could (potentially) be fined if a fire spread through our property. There was a form you had to send back, stating you were compliant.