Help Protect Your Home and Business with Oregon’s Defensible Space Program
Oregon State Fire Marshal has a statewide defensible space program. Hot embers are the leading cause of home loss during a wildfire. They can travel up to three miles ahead of the initial fire.
Defensible space is the buffer you create between your home or business and the grass, trees, shrubs, or any wildland area that surrounds it. By choosing fire-resistant plants, removing needles and leaves, and keeping your deck clear, you give embers or flames fewer options to ignite your home or yard. Studies show that well-maintained defensible space can increase your home’s chance of surviving a wildfire, even if firefighters cannot reach your home.
How Defensible Space Works
To start, look at your home to ensure combustible materials like needles and leaves are removed from gutters, eaves, and around your chimney.
- Make sure bushes around your home are limbed and not touching the siding. Limb trees several feet off the ground to help avoid fire from getting into the tree crowns.
- Keep patios clean of combustible materials like outdoor furniture cushions during times of high fire danger.
- Remove flammable items like outdoor furniture cushions.
- Keep dry wood piles and construction debris 30 feet away from your home.
Creating a defensible space plan for your home and business does not mean creating a moonscape. These plans can include trees, bushes, and other plants, if they are limbed and trimmed properly. Fire-resistant plants can also be a great addition to your yard. These plants are high in moisture content and low in oils. Fire-resistant plants range from ground covers to trees that can bring a beautiful, healthy landscape without sacrificing safety. Trees don’t have to be off-limits; be thoughtful about where they are planted in your yard and what is growing underneath them.
Protect Your Home From Wildfire
- Remove dead and combustible vegetation, mulch, and other materials, especially within the first 5 feet of the home. Replace with decorative rock or gravel.
- Remove leaves, pine needles, and other combustible material from the roof, gutters, and on & under the deck to help prevent embers from igniting the home.
- Cover exterior attic, soffit vents, and areas below decks & patios with 1/8″ metal wire mesh to help prevent embers from entering the home.
- Replace combustible materials with noncombustible materials on decks.
- Enclose eaves to help prevent ember entry.
- Inspect shingles (asphalt, fiberglass, composite) or roof tiles and replace missing shingles or tiles.
- Keep lawns watered and mowed during fire season.
- Move combustible materials such as woodpiles at least 30 feet away from the home and other outbuildings.
- Trim trees and remove or trim brush/bushes and ground cover plants under trees or next to structures or decks.
- Chip, compost, or haul yard debris to a recycling center. Follow local fire regulations if burning debris.
To schedule a free property assessment and download resources, please click here.
Source: Oregon State Fire Marshall