Cal Fire: It's time to clear vegetation around home

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Cal Fire: It's time to clear vegetation around home

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, more popularly known as Cal Fire, is urging residents to create a 100-foot zone of defensible space around their homes before temperatures and the fire risk heat up.

Here are some Cal Fire tips that can help homes survive wildfires:

Remove all flammable vegetation within 30 feet of all structures.
In an additional 70 feet, space trees and plants away from one another.
Clear all needles and leaves from roofs, eaves and rain gutters.
Trim branches 6 feet from the ground.
Use trimming, mowing and power equipment before 10 a.m. and after 6 p.m., not during the heat of the day and not on extremely dry and windy days.
Landscape with fire-resistant plants.
Use fire-ignition-resistant building materials.

For more information on defensible space, visit the Cal Fire Web site at www.fire.ca.gov.

Source: Sacramento Bee

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****REMINDER**** Every fire has the ability to be catastrophic. The wildland fire management environment has profoundly changed. Growing numbers of communities, across the nation, are experiencing longer fire seasons; more frequent, bigger, and more severe, fires are a real threat. Be careful with all campfires and equipment.

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How fires get their names

Every year in California thousands of wildfires start throughout the state. In most cases, the dispatch center sending the initial resources to a wildland fire will designate a name for the fire, but the first on scene engine or fire official can also name the incident. Fires are usually named for the area in which they start – a geographical location, local landmark, street, lake, mountain, peak, etc. Quickly naming the fire provides responding fire resources with an additional locater, and allows fire officials to track and prioritize incidents by name. For example during the Southern California Fire Siege of 2003, the largest wildland fire in California history, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, was named after the Cedar Creek Falls area where it started. The destructive Old Fire, which burned during the same time period in San Bernardino County, was named after the road along which it started - Old Waterman Canyon Road.

CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States. CDF - CAL FIRE Firefighters answer the call more than 300,000 times a year. CAL FIRE Firefighters make up the fire department for 30 of our 58 counties in California and more than 100 local communities. We serve as the incident command during many of California’s most serious disasters. CAL FIRE Firefighters respond to many various types and forms of calls ranging from structural fires, to auto accidents, to earthquakes, to floods, to the spilling of hazardous materials, to every conceivable disaster; CAL FIRE answer's the calls. CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States . CAL FIRE firefighters protect 33 million acres of State Responsibility Area (SRA). We have over 4,000 members within CAL FIRE and CAL FIRE is associated with the California Professional Firefighters (CPF) and the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF).

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Sunday, April 26, 2009