Defensible Space
The most effective wildfire preparation starts close to your home. Creating and maintaining a 5’ non-combustible perimeter around your house is one of the most impactful ways you can reduce the risk of your home igniting during a wildfire.
Defensible space is the area around your home that is managed to reduce wildfire intensity and slow the spread of fire.
- Divided into three zones* extending outward from your home:
- Zone 1 – 0-5’ immediately around your home
- Zone 2 – 5-30’ beyond your home
- Zone 3 – 30-100+’ beyond your home
- Focuses on vegetation spacing, removal of flammable materials, and maintenance
- Helps firefighters safely defend your home
*you may have seen or heard other terms for defensible space zones
Home Hardening
Home hardening focuses on reducing the ways wildfire and embers can ignite your home.
Examples include:
- Fire-resistant roofing (Class A rated) and siding
- Ember-resistant vents
- Clearing debris and flammable material from roofs, decks, and gutters
- Reducing flammable materials near doors and windows
For more information on how to retrofit your home, check out these links:
- Wildfire Home Retrofit Guide
- Home hardening guidance – defensiblespace.org
- Wildfire Ready Home Prep Guide
- Fire-Resistant Plants for Eastern Washington
- Wildfire Research Fact Sheets
Tip: Ask about defensible space and home hardening opportunities during your home assessment or through your local fire district.
Reducing Fuels on Your Property
In some cases, additional fuels reduction may be appropriate beyond the immediate area around your home.
What are fuels?
Fuels are materials – both live and dead – that are combustible. They include leaves, needles, branches, grasses, shrubs, trees, and other debris that can carry fire.
Why reduce fuels?
Fuels are an important part of how fire behaves – how it spreads and how intensely it burns. If fuels are closely arranged next to one another, fire can easily spread horizontally. Space between fuels can reduce fire intensity and slow fire spread.
Fire can also spread from the ground to the tree canopy when fuels are arranged one above the other. This vertical fuel arrangement is often referred to as “ladder fuel.” Ladder fuels and continuous vegetation allow fire to move from the ground into tree canopies and spread more rapidly.
Fuels reduction can include:
- Thinning dense vegetation
- Creating separation between fuels on the ground (shrubs, grasses, etc.) and tree canopies
- Creating breaks in fuel continuity
Before Fuels Reduction
After Fuels Reduction