Protecting your home from brushfires

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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

The above tips are courtesy of Bay News 9's sister station, Central Florida News 13.

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