What is Defensible Space?
Defensible Space is the area between a house and an oncoming wildfire where the vegetation has been modified to reduce the wildfire threat. It provides an opportunity for firefighters to effectively defend and potentially save a home from burning to the ground. Sometimes Defensible Space is simply a homeowner's properly maintained backyard. While in other situations it involves removing trees and substantial amounts of brush and shrubs. So what can you do to create Defensible Space around your home? Use "Living With Fire" and the information below as a guide, or call the Defensible Space request line at 775/831-0351, ext. 8118 to recieve a free Defensible Space Evaluation.
The structure itself:
- Is your address clearly visible to emergency response personnel?
- All combustible materials removed from beneath decks, stairways and overhangs?
- All pine needles removed from roof and gutter?
- Wire mesh chimney cap (spark arrester) in place?
Within 5 feet:
- All pine needles and combustible mulch kept clear year round?
- All flammable vegetation removed?
Within 30 feet:
- All dead trees removed?
- Pine needles removed once a year?
- All limbs removed within 10 feet of the structure?
- All branches, bark chunks, scrap lumber removed?
- Weeds and dead grasses cut two inches or shorter.
- Firewood, lumber, and large woody materials removed at least 30 feet from structures and covered?
- Flammable shrubs separated by twice the average shrub height?
- All highly flammable ornamental vegetation removed? (i.e. juniper, arborvitae, mugo pine)
Within 100 feet:
- All dry, flammable vegetation within 100 feet of structure removed?
- All trees limbed ten feet from the ground?
- Excessively dense tree cover removed/break up continous vegetation? (Trees larger than or equal to 14" diameter at breast height (4.5 feet above ground) require a permit for removal.)
- Is the vegetation within the recommended Defensible Space area maintained on a regular basis?
To set up a Defensible Space Evaluation or request Chipping service, you can call our Defensible Space & Chipping request phone line at 775/831-0351, ext. 8118 or make a request online.. These services are available spring through fall months. Please reference our Defensible Space Evaluation Form.