Our local fire season is well under way, but it’s not too late to increase your home’s chances of surviving fire danger. After all, we get some of our hottest weather in August and September, so whatever you do to prevent a fire from spreading is better than nothing.
This year, fire danger is even higher than normal because of all the late rains we had in March and April. Remember when those darn rains just wouldn’t stop? We had the shortest spring that I can remember, and then summer just hit with a vengeance.
Rural and hillside residents especially can breathe easier if you remember the three Rs: remove fuel, reduce fuel and replace fire-hazardous plants with fire-resistant landscaping.
According to Maureen Gilmer, author of “The Wildfire Survival Guide: Defensive Landscaping to Protect Your Family and Home,” “The key is to create bands of native protection around your home. Remove dead and exotic plants, shrubs and grasses that feed a fire, and take steps to prevent erosion and mud slides.”
The key issue, Gilmer adds, is to consider all plants, living and dead, as fuels. “Fire only goes where there is fuel,” she says, adding that bedding plants are ideal choices to plant in the “protective ring around your home.”
She cites bedding plants are so-called “low fuel plants that have a high moisture content.” For instance, when plants burn, the flame is about three times the height of plants. Since most bedding plants are low growing, there is less of a flame if they catch on fire. Also, most bedding plants have an especially high moisture content.
“Some of the more popular native trees and shrubs become very volatile especially as they age, die and dry out, making them fuel for fire,” Gilmer says. “Bedding plants are great as part of that 30-foot barrier that should be around rural or hillside homes.”
That 30-foot barrier around your house is vital, especially if you live in the country or on a hillside. Weeds and brush – the “fuel” for any wildfire – can be cut down with a string trimmer, and then sprayed with Roundup or Finale. Reduce fuel by pruning shrubs and trees within your defensible space.
It should be noted that all plants will burn if exposed to enough heat. But most fleshy-leaved plants, including many bedding plants, will smolder a lot longer before burning since their foliage doesn’t contain oils that make some brush explode in flames.
The fire-retardant plant list includes groundcovers to use in cleared areas around rural homes. Among the more common groundcovers are: iceplant, sedum, ivy geranium, African daisy, myoporum, periwinkle (Vinca major or minor), ornamental strawberry, rosemary, rockrose (cistus) and star jasmine. These groundcovers can also reduce fire danger around tract homes.
Some shrubs with fire resistance are: wild lilac (ceanothus), australian fuchsia, strawberry tree, live oak, saltbrush, western red bud, cotoneaster, escallonia, toyon, oleander, pyracantha, raphiolepis and pittosporum.
All residents, no matter whether you live in the country or city, should cut back plants as needed and remove dead growth. Also, remove leaves and needles from roofs and gutters. Trim any portion of trees extending over buildings, or within 10 feet of the chimney.
