Danger spots around your home

Untreated wood shake roofs:
Untreated wood shake roofs, which can catch windblown sparks, are the number one cause of home losses in wildland areas.

Solution: Install a fire resistant roof when you re-roof.

Debris on roofs:
Tinder dry needles and leaves on your roof and in your rain gutters can easily catch fire and endanger your home.

Solution: Sweep your gutters and roof on a regular basis, especially during the dry, hot weather of the fire season. Install a screen over the gutters.

Tree limbs too close to your chimney and roof
Tree limbs too close to your chimney can easily ignite and endanger your home. Dead limbs overhanging your home may ignite and spread a fire to your home.

Solution: Trim all tree limbs that are within 10 feet of your chimney and remove all dead limbs overhanging your home or garage.

No screen on attic and foundation vents:
Sparks or embers from an approaching wildland fire can get into your home through unprotected vents and ignite your home.

Solution: Cover your attic and foundation vents with wire mesh no larger than 1/2 inch mesh.

No spark arrester on chimney
A spark from your chimney can ignite the surrounding wild vegetation.

Solution: To ensure that you don’t create your own spark hazard, screen your chimneys with 1/2 inch mesh noncombustible wire screening.

Combustible materials stored too close to your home
Firewood or other combustible materials stored too close to your home can ignite and spread a fire into your home.

Solution: Store all combustible materials away from your home and keep the lids on your garbage cans.

Address sign not visible from the street
No visible address number will cause a delay in an emergency. Remember the fire department cannot help you if they cannot find you.

Solution: Make sure your home can be quickly identitied by ensuring that its address is clearly marked and visible.

Overgrown, dead landscape
Overgrown, dead landscape can ignite and endanger your home.

Solution: Maintain your landscape. Trim and remove any dead vegetation. If you are relandscaping, choose plants that are fire resistant.

No defensible space between your home and wild vegetation
Flammable wildland vegetation too close to your home will make it almost impossible for firefighters to save your home in the event of a brush fire.

Solution: In most areas, a safety zone should be cleared away from your home for a distance of not less than 30 feet. As the slope of your lot increases, additional clearance of 100 feet or more may be necesssary. Clearance also depends on vegetative conditions that provide ladder fuels that enable fire to climb into trees. Trees and shrubs are fine, as long as dead or low hanging branches are removed.

—from the San Mateo Co. Fire Safe Program