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Protecting Your Home
The Town of Creston Fire Department offers steps to help protect your home in a wildfire. The steps are broken up into how much money they will cost.
- Always have a shovel on hand and hook up the garden hose before you start the fire.
- Be a FireSmart advocate. Tell others of the dangers and risks, leading them by example.
- Check your fire extinguishers. Are they still charged? Are they easy to get to in an emergency? Does everyone in the family know where they are and how to use them?
- Clean your roof and gutters of leaves and pine needles (best done fall and spring).
- Clear deadwood and dense flammable vegetation from your home’s defensible space.
- Clear the view of your house numbers so it can be easily seen from the street.
- Compost leaves in the fall, don’t burn them.
- Contact your utility company if trees or branches are not clear of power lines.
- Get involved to know your community’s disaster mitigation plans.
- Have flammable liquids and propane tanks stored on non-flammable ground cover such as gravel around them for at least 10 feet.
- If you are building a new home, talk to the developer and local zoning officials about building standards and materials recommended to reduce your risk of loss in the event of a wildfire.
- If you burn your brush piles or grass, get a burning permit if you are in municipal boundaries. If you are outside municipal boundaries, check BC Forestry regulations regarding burning in your area.
- If you have a burn barrel that you use for trash, stop doing that.
- Maintain a green lawn for 10 metres (30 feet) around your home that is mowed and watered.
- Move your firewood pile out of your home’s defensible space. Store wood more than 10 metres (30 feet) from house, avoiding down slope location.
- Never burn if the some and flames are blowing towards your home, your neighbors’ home, forested areas or any other combustible material.
- Perform a FireSmart assessment of your home.
- Plan and discuss an escape plan with your family. Have a practice drill. Include your pets, often forgotten in wildfire evacuations.
- Prune all tree branches to a height of 2 metres (6 feet).
- Prune branches overhanging the driveway to have 4.5 metres (14 feet) high
- Put a hose (at least a 100 feet long) on a rack and attach it to an outside faucet.
- Relocate propane tanks inside the defensible space but at least 10 feet away from the house.
- Remove all coniferous trees, long grass, conifer shrubs, logs, branches for at least 10 metres (30 feet) away from the house, especially if your home is in a high risk area.
- Remove trees along the driveway to make it 4 metres (12 feet) wide to accommodate emergency vehicles.
- Review your homeowner’s insurance policy for adequate coverage. Consult your insurance agent about costs of rebuilding and repairs in your area.
- Talk to your children about not starting fires or playing with matches.
- Hold a neighborhood meeting to talk about wildfire safety. Invite your local fire chief or fire department representative. Have coffee and doughnuts for neighbors.
- Install a fire extinguisher in the kitchen and the garage.
- Install big, highly visible house numbers (at least 4 inches tall) at the entrance of the driveway onto the street / highway if numbers on the house are not visible from the roadway. Use non-flammable materials and posts.
- Install highly visible house numbers (at least 4 inches tall) on your home.
- Install metal screens on all attic, foundation and other openings on your home to prevent accumulation of leaves and needles. This includes undersides of balconies, decks and crawlspaces sheathed with flame resistant materials.
- Install spark arrestor or heavy wire screen with opening less than ½” on wood burning fireplaces and chimneys.
- Purchase and use a NOAA weather alert radio. Many types of emergencies are announced through this service.
- Replace conifer and evergreen shrubs with low-flammable plants in your home’s defensible space.
- Replace vinyl gutters and downspouts with non-flammable, metal gutters and downspouts.
- Thin trees (3 to 6 metres between crowns) for at least 30 metres from house.
- Build a gravel turn around area near your house big enough to allow a fire truck to turn around.
- Enclose decks to prevent accumulation of leaves, needles and debris. Include a metal screen with 1/8 inch mesh opening to prevent sparks from getting under the deck.
- Join your neighbors in having an additional access road into your neighborhood. Share the costs.
- Modify driveway gates to accommodate fire trucks. They should be at least 10 feet wide and set back at least 30 feet from the road. If locked, use a key box purchased through Creston Fire Rescue or use a chain loop with a lock that can be cut in an emergency.
- Treat flammable materials like wood roofs, decks and siding with fire retardant chemicals.
- Box in eaves, fascias and soffits with aluminum or steel materials with metal screens to prevent entry of sparks.
- Have electric service lines to your house placed underground.
- Improve driveway culverts and bridges to accommodate the weight of a firetruck.
- Improve your driveway by straightening sharp curves and filling in sharp dips that would hinder a fire truck. Driveways over 90 metres require large turnarounds for emergency vehicle access or a secondary access to the property.
- Install a roof irrigation system to protect your home’s roof.
- Install an independent water supply for a sprinkler system with a nonelectric (e.g. propane) powered pump capable of running unattended for 24 hours.
- Replace single-pane glass windows and plastic skylights with tempered, double pane glass. The use of solid shutters or metal firescreens will provide increased fire protection for windows and doors.
- Replace wood or vinyl siding with non-flammable fire resistive material.
- Replace your roof with fire retardant roofing, rated Class A, B or C.