Good Defensible Space Starts With Structure Hardening

Sustainable Defensible Space starts with your building. Retrofitting your current structure or constructing a FireWise building in a wildfire hazard zone increases resistance of your investment to wildfire. Doing so also safeguards firefighters’ lives, improves conservation values and protects our Truckee-Tahoe’s natural heritage.

The key to protecting your home and property from fire is to start from the main structure (house, office space, warehouse etc) out. The Wildland Urban Interface Building Standard requires that property owners do fuel modification out to 100 feet (or the property line) around their buildings to create a defensible space for firefighters and to protect their homes from wildfires.

Just as much as exterior vegetation is not the only fuel providing those embers, they can enter your house through many different routes, but they can also be spread from structure to structure or from a structure to wildland vegetation. Meaning that the most important place to begin preparing defensible space is with your structures on your property. If it is an older structure then making sure to fortify or retrofit your building can be your best defense against ember intrusion.