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SALT LAKE CITY — If your home is in the path of a wildfire, your landscaping could help slow the flames.
Salt Lake City Fire officials said a good first step is to prepare and protect against wildfires is recognizing if your home or business is in the wildland-urban interface.
Officials classify a wildland-urban interface as suburban and urban neighborhoods that come in contact with the wildland space. They say if are worried about a stray ember from a nearby wildland fire getting to your home, you are probably within the wild and interface.
Capt. Tom Simons, the deputy emergency manager for Salt Lake City Fire, said that an ember can travel a mile from its fire source.
"Once the home becomes involved, it becomes a huge ember source and actually becomes a source of ignition for neighbor homes," Simons said.
Fire officials like Simons recommend homeowners create and maintain a defensible space between their home and a wildland area. A defensible space is a spot that creates a buffer to slow or stop a wildfire.
Simons said if there is no buffer, then your home could catch on fire more quickly.
"A home that has really good, defensible space makes it a whole lot easier for us to move that fire past that home without any danger," he said.
Officials say a defensible space can be broken into three zones. Your home and the immediate surrounding area is Zone 1. Zone 2 is from five to 30 feet and Zone 3 is 30 to 100 feet.
All three of these zones can connect by ladder fuels, and the fire can spread to your home faster.
"As it starts down low, there's some grasses and some low pieces, moves up in kind of medium height bush that's in contact with, a kind of with a smaller tree that moves into a larger tree, and then that larger tree comes right up against the home. So that's what we call a ladder fuel. It's a connective tissue," Simons said.
Fire officials said there are three things you can start doing to protect your home:
- Improve the condition of your home. Consider using non-combustible materials for your roof, siding, decks and fencing.
- For your garden, grow firewise plants like succulents and use rock mulch.
- Plant bushes and trees in small groups and spread them apart. Remove ladder fuels and keep combustible items like firewood and propane tanks at least 30 feet away from the home.
Simons said homeowners can request a free home assessment from the Salt Lake City Fire Department.
"We will send a fire crew as well as one of our emergency management professionals out," he said.
Studies show that as many as 80% of the homes lost to wildland fires could have been saved if their owners followed simple fire-safe practices.
Taking these steps can protect your home and keep your family safe.
"Talking about all of these things, talking about little things you can do, big things you can do, across the spectrum. And then what we actually have is we also have resources to help you through it," Simons said.
