How to defend your home from a wildfire

Climate change is increasing temperatures in Oregon, and wildfires are becoming more common in the state.

As wildfires spread to new areas and threaten thousands of homes each year, different organizations and agencies are giving Oregon residents guidelines for protecting their homes, properties and gardens from wildfire spread.

Jessica Neujahr is a public affairs officer for the Oregon Department of Forestry. She said it’s important to recognize that “every house and property is different.” Many factors can impact the risk of wildfire spreading to your home, but there are always ways to protect your home and your community.

“The more that we can create defensible space around a home, the better it is for not only protecting the home, but to create a passageway into the fire for firefighters as well,” Neujahr said. “It’s not only about protecting your home, but it’s also about creating safe pathways that can potentially put firefighters closer to a fire and help them extinguish it faster.”

Your home

There are easy ways to protect your home from an approaching fire, and precautions you can take to avoid starting one.

The National Interagency Fire Center is a combination of federal and state agencies created to support fire safety and firefighting efforts.

The center’s biggest advice on protecting your home from a wildfire is using fire-resistant building material or fire retardant chemicals on the exterior of the home. These can prevent fires from quickly burning and spreading.

One easy way to help ensure a fire doesn’t start and spread on your property, Neujahr said, is to clean out your gutters regularly.

“With all of the things that are in the gutter, if an ember comes in, it could easily spark and set the roof on fire.”

Cleaning debris and branches from around your home can also save it from burning.

The U.S. Forest Service also has a few recommendations for inside your home:

• Prepare an Emergency Kit - Include essentials such as water, food, medications, important documents, and personal items
• Stay Informed - Keep up with the latest fire information and evacuation orders from local authorities
• Install Smoke Alarms - Ensure your home has working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors
• Have an Evacuation Plan - Plan and practice multiple evacuation routes with your family
• Protect Your Air Quality - Use air purifiers and keep windows closed to reduce smoke exposure indoors

For more recommendations on protecting your home inside and out, visit the National Interagency Fire Center’s page or the interactive Living With Fire page.

Your yard and garden

In 2023, Oregon fire agencies partnered to create the Defensible Space Program, which offers free assessments to Oregon residents. Through the program, experts can evaluate property and offer personalized recommendations on maintaining fire-safe spaces around your home.

In addition to removing debris from roofs and gutters, they recommend regularly pruning trees and bushes around your home. Neujahr said this can prevent your yard and garden from facilitating wildfire spread.

“Clean up dead or dying plants, branches, leaves, anything like that. Also, prune tree branches. If there’s a fire on the ground and it’s able to catch on one of those lower branches, it will end up moving up that tree and torching it.” She added that routinely turning on sprinklers can keep the grass around your home from drying out.

A group including the Oregon Department of Forestry and the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Office has put together has put together a set of guidelines for what a defensible space around your house should look like:

• Fence attachments to the structure have a noncombustible alternative such as a metal gate or fence.
• Leaves, conifer needles, dead wood, bark mulch, and other debris removed from within 100 feet of the structure or to the property line.
• Fire-resistive plants are spaced within the designated defensible space area. Grass is mowed to less than 4 inches.
• Debris is taken to a recycling center or chipped, composted. Local regulations are followed if burning yard debris.
• Firewood piles and lumber at least 30 feet from any structure.
• Combustible vegetation 10 feet away from permanent propane tanks.
• Small BBQ tanks, not in use, are stored at least 30 feet away or in an outbuilding.

Often, people with property debris get rid of it by burning it. That’s OK, Neujahr said. But it must be done safely, or it might start an unintended fire. She said debris burning is the No. 1 human cause of wildfires in the state.

The season when you burn your debris also matters. In the wet months of spring, it’s safe.

“However, as we get closer to the beginning of fire season, those debris burns can easily escape and become larger wildfires,” Neujahr said. Burning your debris during wildfire season is illegal, but Neujahr said you can instead cover it with plastic or a tarp. “Then come fall, when the wetting rains return, they can burn that. At that point too, that debris is now cured and will actually burn cleaner and faster.”

After burning, always go back and check the pile. There could be residual embers that can reignite when wildfire season returns.

Spacing out plants and shrubbery around your home is another way to keep wildfires from spreading onto your property. “It pulls combustible material away from your home,” Neujahr said. And she reiterated the importance of lining your house with fire resistant materials. “You’ve taken away fuels that a fire could use to creep up to your home and, essentially, stopping it and keeping it and protecting your home from that wildfire.”

To schedule a free assessment, visit the Defensible Space Program page. To find out more ways to keep your property safe from fire spread, see the Defensible Space Checklist.

Resources

The Oregon Garden Fire Safety House was built as a life-size model of what a fire-resistant home and garden should look like. The house is made of fire resistant materials and includes fire resistant plants and examples of distance separation for trees and shrubbery.

The house’s page has information on which plants and trees are fire resistant and what maintenance practices will decrease chances of fire spread.

To learn more about the three zones of home ignition and how to keep them from facilitating fire on your property, see the Oregon Fire Safety House page or visit the Oregon Garden in person.

Wildfires know no boundaries, Neujahr said. They won’t stop at a property line or go around a home. As more areas of the state are impacted by wildfires, residents may not know how to protect their properties.

Cleaning up debris, spacing out plants and chemically treating potentially flammable home materials can decrease risks of burning and increase the chances that firefighters will prioritize defending your home.

To protect yourself and your family, Neujahr recommends having a go bag with necessary emergency items ready, in case you need to evacuate.

“That includes water, some food, medical records, any important documents, medication, some clothes. When there’s Level 3 evacuations, if you have a plan in place and have your go bag ready, you’re saving precious time as you’re trying to leave,” she said. “The more you can do to protect yourself and your communities, the more we can create fire resilient communities in Oregon.”

More:

• Oregon State University has more on fuel reduction, plant selection and creating a defensible space around your home.
• The National Fire Protection Association has more on home ignition zones.
• Fire Free has 10 steps you can take to protect your home from wildfires.
• The California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection has more on “hardening your home,” including details on retrofitting the exterior.