| Fire Safety Tips to keep your home safe |
1. Keep you garden hose connected to the water spigot throughout the fire season.
2. Prune lower branches of trees to eliminate ladder fuels (this is particularly important for dry
pines trees and palms with low hanging dead fronds throughout our community).
3. Reduce groundcover (shrub) height to less than 12 inches in the 30-foot zone around your
home, less than 18 inches in the 100-foot zone.
4. When mowing, always work early in the morning. Make sure power tools have spark arresters
to prevent equipment-caused fires.
5. Maintain defensible space by cleaning up plant litter and watering properly.
6. Clean dead leaves and pine needles from roof and gutters.
7. Cover your chimney outlet and stovepipe with nonflammable half-inch mesh screen.
8. Clear flammable vegetation at least 10 feet from roads and 5 feet from driveways.
9. During a wildfire, if you think you should evacuate, it’s OK to leave before you’re asked by law
enforcement or the fire department.
10. When asked to leave, do so immediately. The safety of your family and the lives of firefighters
who need to focus on putting out the fire depend on you getting to safety. Although we live in the
city, our homes were built very close together and a house fire can quickly jump from one house
to another. These tips could save lives.
Sources: Sacramento Bee, California department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Northern
California Resource Center, California Fire Safe Council, Shasta County Fire Safe Council.
2. Prune lower branches of trees to eliminate ladder fuels (this is particularly important for dry
pines trees and palms with low hanging dead fronds throughout our community).
3. Reduce groundcover (shrub) height to less than 12 inches in the 30-foot zone around your
home, less than 18 inches in the 100-foot zone.
4. When mowing, always work early in the morning. Make sure power tools have spark arresters
to prevent equipment-caused fires.
5. Maintain defensible space by cleaning up plant litter and watering properly.
6. Clean dead leaves and pine needles from roof and gutters.
7. Cover your chimney outlet and stovepipe with nonflammable half-inch mesh screen.
8. Clear flammable vegetation at least 10 feet from roads and 5 feet from driveways.
9. During a wildfire, if you think you should evacuate, it’s OK to leave before you’re asked by law
enforcement or the fire department.
10. When asked to leave, do so immediately. The safety of your family and the lives of firefighters
who need to focus on putting out the fire depend on you getting to safety. Although we live in the
city, our homes were built very close together and a house fire can quickly jump from one house
to another. These tips could save lives.
Sources: Sacramento Bee, California department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Northern
California Resource Center, California Fire Safe Council, Shasta County Fire Safe Council.