03
May

A forest home can be peaceful and calming, but there is always the fear of a wildfire. With some precautions and planned out defensible spaces, you can minimize the risk of a wildfire affecting your home. Before you build your forest home or you get settled in a prebuilt one, make sure you take these safety precautions.

Forest Home Wildfire Safety Tip: Understand the Limitations

Getting the fire departments out to the rural areas isn’t easy. The majority of the departments are run by volunteers, so aren’t around all the time. The water supplies are also minimal, which can mean putting fires out is much harder. Then there’s the roads that are steep and narrow, which make it difficult for the trucks to get up there.

You want to take precautions so you don’t need the emergency services immediately:
1. Dispose of Debris and Dead Leaves
2. Make sure the debris and slash from thinning is removed immediately. Take away leaves, dead limbs and any other litter around the area. The left behind debris is a fire risk. This debris remains dry, creating the perfect fuel for the fires to spread. Dry trees is why the forest fires spread the quickest in the summer months and during periods of drought.
3. Do prune your branches regularly. You want to mow the dry grass, remove the weeds, and trim back the branches. This helps to ensure good growth of the trees and helps to create defensible space.
4. If you have dying or diseased trees, look at getting them removed. You can just have individual trees cut. The dying and diseased trees are more likely to be dry and will create the perfect fossil fuel. This is also a good time to talk about getting a defensible space created for your home, making it harder for fire to spread.

If you want to increase your forest home wildfire safety, contact Colorado Mastication for a free estimate on creating defensible space, removing dead trees and scrub oak.