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Keeping Your Home Ready For Fire

• Clear roofs and gutter of leaves and pine needles
• Clear at least 30 feet between your home and areas of heavy vegetation.
• Keep grass around your house mowed and free of leaves and pine needles.
• Keep flammable materials away from the base of all buildings.
• Trim branches up to 10 feet on tall trees
• Remove vines from trees, house
• Keep shrubbery away from pine trees
• Use patches of shrubs or perennials instead of a continuous bed of plants
• Use mulching around your plants and keep it moist. Do not use too close to the foundation of your house.
• Have a gravel walkway
• Keep combustable materials, such as firewood, newspapers, gasoline, oily rags from 10 to 20 feet away from the home.
• Do not connect wooden fencing directly to your home
• Clearly mark your driveway with your name and address on noncombustible street signs

What To Do When Brush Fire Threatens

• Listen to a battery-powered radio or TV for evacuation information.
• Confine your pets to one room until you have to get out
• Seal up attic and ground vents with pre-cut plywood or commercial seals
• Place sprinkler on roof of house. Don't start it until the first embers hit the roof
• Know where water sources are at your home, whether it is a hydrant, lake or swimming pool.
• Clear 10 foot area around a gas grill
• Wet or remove shrubs within 15 feet of the home
• Connect garden hose to outside taps
• Plan where you will evacuate to

Before You Evacuate

• Shut off gas at the meter.
• Turn off pilot lights
• Open fireplace damper, close fireplace screens
• Close windows, vents, doors, venetian blinds, noncombustible windo coverings, heavy drapes. Remove lightweight drapes.
• Move flammable furniture to the center of the home.
• Turn on a light in each room to increase visibility if your home has heavy smoke
• Back your car into your garage or park it in the open facing the direction of escape. Shut the doors and roll up the windows.
• Wear sturdy shoes, cotton or wool clothes, long pants, long-sleeved shirt, gloves and a handkerchief for your face.
• Lock your home
• Tell someone where you are going