You’re not alone if you have recently googled “how do you prepare for wildfires?” due to concerns over the droughts. Now more than ever, it’s critical to learn how to keep your buildings and their property safe from fires.
Fortunately, there are methods for preparation and prevention that you can quickly implement to protect your business or home. Our experts at A&A Fire Protection have simple yet effective tips that answer the urgent question, “How do you prepare for wildfires?”
How Do You Prepare for Wildfires?
How do you prepare for wildfires without spending a fortune or devoting countless hours of your precious time? While there is no single answer to make your home or business less susceptible to wildfires, use these essential tips to improve your safety in one afternoon:
Use the Zone Method
The Zone Method is a simple way to reduce your susceptibility to wildfires and the damage that they can cause. When using this method, you should break the property surrounding your building into three separate zones: Zone 0, Zone 1, and Zone 2.
- Zone 0: the area from 0 to 5 feet from the exterior of your building. Avoid using dry bark or mulch in this space, as these materials are combustible. Take special care to cut down dead branches or plants as well. You should also keep plants in this zone watered, so they don’t dry out.
- Zone 1: begins at the 5-foot mark and extends 30 feet from your building. Remove branches and dead plants hanging over your building’s roof. Ensure no combustibles are under balconies, stairs, or decks. Examples of combustibles include pine needles, dead leaves, plant debris, or mulch.
- Zone 2: ranges from 30 to 100 feet from your building’s exterior walls. In this zone, you should keep grass less than four inches high. Also, rake up leaves, pine needles, or other debris to avoid large piles of combustible material.
Fireproof Your Yard
In addition to maintaining vegetation, ensure that you have at least one working faucet in your yard and enough hose to reach any area of the property. You may need more than one faucet if you have a large property.
Relocate your grill away from combustible materials and place it on a concrete patio away from your home if possible. If you do not have a deck, you can create a small grilling area out of concrete blocks for optimal safety.
You should also ensure that emergency vehicles, such as ambulances and fire trucks, can access your building in the event of a fire. Remove any obstructions that could get in their way and cut back vegetation near your driveway.
Finally, purchase some essential yard tools and keep them in an easily accessible location. A few tools you should invest in include a bucket, rake, and shovel. You can use these tools to create additional fire barriers if a wildfire threatens your property.
Install Fire Sprinklers
Fire sprinklers serve several purposes. First, they can quickly extinguish a fire that originated within your building. By addressing on-site fire hazards, you can minimize the severity of fire damage and, more importantly, keep building occupants safe.
Secondly, fire sprinklers serve as a last line of defense against wildfires. Fire sprinklers may prevent total structure loss if your other efforts have failed. Fire sprinklers, combined with good prevention practices and the Zone Method, are even more effective.
Protect Your Property Now
How do you prepare for wildfires? You can start by implementing our preventative tips to better protect your home or business against the increasingly high risk of fire caused by drought. Taking steps to fireproof your home or business can save your property from damage or even loss later. If you want to equip your building with fire sprinklers, A&A Fire Protection is here to help. Contact us today for a free fire sprinkler design and installation quote for your space.
