Preparing Your Home for Wildfire Season

 

 

 

Even though Colorado experienced a wetter-than-average spring, drier weather is on its way and that means wildfire season will soon be upon us. If you live in the foothills or the mountains, it’s important to take steps to prepare your property so as to mitigate damage if wildfire strikes. And according to the Colorado State Forest Service, “more than half of Colorado residents live in the wildland-urban interface and are at some risk of being affected by wildfire.”

To help Coloradans prepare, the agency has just issued a brand-new guide, The Home Ignition Zone: A Guide to Preparing Your Home for Wildfire and Creating Defensible Space. In this guide you can find tips on how much space to leave between your home and vegetation; structural adaptations that can reduce wildfire risk to homes; types of fuels to be aware of (grasses, logs, brush, needles, trees, etc.), and a helpful “home ignition zone checklist.”

The Forest Service also provides helpful information on their Colorado Forest Atlas website. Here users can access a Risk Reduction Planner, a Wildfire Risk Viewer, and other tools. Finally, Colorado State Publications Library can help homeowners find numerous additional resources on protecting their property from wildfire, such as Creating Wildfire Defensible Zones and Living With Fire: A Guide for the Homeowner. Search the library’s catalog for more titles.