SALT LAKE CITY — If your home is in the path of a wildfire, your landscaping could help slow the flames.
According to the Salt Lake City Fire Department, a good first step to preparing for and protecting yourself from wildfires is to identify whether your home or business is located in the forest-urban border area.
Officials classify a wilderness-urban interface as suburban and urban neighborhoods that come into contact with the wilderness area. They say if you’re worried about a stray ember from a nearby wildfire making its way to your home, you’re probably in the wilderness and at the interface.
Captain Tom Simons, deputy emergency manager for the Salt Lake City Fire Department, explained that amber can be carried a mile away from its source.
“Once the house is affected, it becomes a huge source of embers and can actually set fire to neighboring houses,” Simons said.
Given the increasing risk of fire, here’s how you can prepare your family for an evacuation
Firefighters like Simons recommend that homeowners create and maintain a defensible zone between their home and a forested area. A defensible zone is a place that creates a buffer to slow or stop a wildfire.
Simons said if there is no buffer, your sperm could catch fire faster.
“A house with really defensible space makes it much easier for us to direct the fire past that house without danger,” he said.
According to official figures, a defensible area can be divided into three zones. Your home and the immediate surroundings make up Zone 1, Zone 2 is 1.5 to 9 meters wide, and Zone 3 is 9 to 30 meters wide.
A graphic explaining the three zones around a home at the wilderness-urban interface. (Salt Lake City Fire Department)
All three zones can be connected by ladder fuels and the fire can spread to your home more quickly.
“It starts at the bottom, there’s some grasses and some low pieces, moves up into sort of a medium height shrub that comes into contact with a smaller tree, which turns into a larger tree, and then that larger tree comes right up against the house. So that’s what we call ladder fuel. It’s a connective tissue,” Simons said.
According to the fire department, there are three things you can do to protect your home:
- Improve the condition of your home. Consider using non-combustible materials for your roof, siding, decks and fence.
- Plant fire-resistant plants such as succulents in your garden and use rock mulch.
- Plant bushes and trees in small groups and space them out from each other. Remove ladder fuels and keep flammable items such as firewood and propane tanks at least 30 feet away from the house.
Simons said homeowners can request a free home evaluation from the Salt Lake City Fire Department.
“We will send a fire brigade team and one of our disaster management experts,” he said.
Simons and the Salt Lake City Fire Department inspect a house for possible wildfire danger. (KSL TV)
Studies show that up to 80% of homes destroyed by wildfires could have been saved if their owners had followed simple fire safety measures.
By taking these steps, you can protect your home and the safety of your family.
“We talk about all of these things, small things you can do, big things you can do, the whole spectrum. And what we actually have is we also have resources to help you with that,” Simons said.
