WILDFIRE PROTECTION: HOW TO GIVE YOUR HOME THE BEST SHOT AT SURVIVAL (hint: it starts with "S")

Don’t wait to take action to protect your home from wildfire danger

Key Points

• It's never too early to prepare your home for wildfire season and take steps to protect it.

• Experts say paying attention to the 4 "S's" to enhance safety is key

• Fire-hardened homes limit the use of combustible materials in favor of fire resistant exteriors like metal roofs

Fire hardened homes use non-combustible exterior materials like metal roof and stone accents. Image courtesy of MRA member Ideal Roofing

To help protect your home from wildfire danger, don’t wait until hot weather hits, say safety experts.

In many regions these days, wildfire season starts earlier and affects many more communities. That’s why taking steps now to help your home survive a wildfire is so important. Experts recommend paying heed to the four “S’s”—Structures, Spacing, Selection and Sprucing—as a way to increase protection for your home:

#1: Structures

Because of the behavior of wildfires, how a home or building is designed and constructed is the most important factor in fire resiliency. That includes choosing fire resistant roofs and siding, installing interior sprinklers, making sure decks and patios are made of non-flammable materials, selecting heat resistant windows and more.

Fire-hardened homes limit or eliminate the use of readily combustible exterior materials, such as wood, oil and tar based products, in favor of more fire resistant materials like concrete, stone, gravel and metal. 

With a home’s roof being the single most vulnerable area for ignition in the event of a wildfire, materials such as metal roofing systems that carry a Class A rating for fire resistance are essential. In fact, local ordinances in some wildfire-prone areas have declared wood shake roofs to be “a severe fire hazard and danger,” and have even offered incentives to help replace them.

For roofs, choose a fire-resistant material like metal and consider that burning embers can roll off a steep-pitched roof, making them more fire resistant than a flat one. The underside of roof eaves, fascias and soffits should be protected against airborne embers by enclosing them with ignition resistant materials. The underlayment your installer uses matters: ask them how to increase fire resistance when re-roofing your home.

#2: Spacing

According to the National Fire Protection Association, homeowners need to pay close attention to three wildfire danger zones surrounding their house: The Immediate Zone (the dwelling and five feet surrounding it); the Intermediate Zone (up to 30 feet from the dwelling) and the Extended Zone (up to 200 feet).

Take special care especially in the Immediate Zone to eliminate highly flammable materials. Consider only planting in containers that are kept well-watered for anything close to the home. Instead of bark or wood chips, mulch with very fine compost or inorganic material such as gravel and rocks.

#3: Selection

Choose low flammable landscape and building materials. However, keep in mind that all plants will burn so where they are placed and how they are maintained are more important than the type.

Choose “fire-reluctant” plants by checking out the plant generator list on living-with-fire.org/plant-list-generator/ and avoid highly flammable plants and plants that are considered invasive to your region.

Rules of thumb for good plant options include growing native species that are more adapted to your climate zone, avoiding plants that retain dead leaves, twigs and branches or those that give off a waxy or oily smell. Consider low-growing greenery and plants with high moisture content in your Immediate and Intermediate zones.

#4: Sprucing

Keep your property “spruced up” and properly maintained, free and clear of debris. Remove brush piles promptly. Rake and remove woody debris and minimize flammable materials on the property. That includes everything from dry and dead vegetation to gas cans and oily rags that may be stored in your garage.

Structures such as roofs, gutters, decks, beds and pathways in the Immediate and Intermediate zone should be cleaned and free of debris and dry organic matter, especially important in late summer and early fall. Trim trees and bushes away from all structures. Consider a low maintenance roof that won’t collect or support the growth of organic materials, such as metal roofs which are naturally resistant and can be easily cleaned with a simple squirt of water to remove debris.

A homeowner living in wildfire-prone area shares his story of how his roof helps protect his dream home.