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“My God, it’s so simple, … to prepare for this. It’s basically being sure your roof and your gutters are clear. And that you’ve raked … a walkway, … around the house that doesn’t have combustible material. … because they [the fire department] explained that what happens is embers fall and you don’t want them to be able to fall into duff. So you clear the duff.”
(Barbara Sprenger, in conversation with Susanne and Garett, Sept 2021).

Preparing your house for wildfire is called, “house hardening.” Many people are intimidated by this term, feeling that there is much to do and doing it is difficult.

However, as Barbara says, it really isn’t that hard.  Basically, you want to ensure that a few embers won’t light your house on fire.

As Barbara says,

1. Keep roof and gutters clear so embers won’t catch
2. Keep combustible materials away from the house, so fire cannot “walk” up to your home.
3. Cover attic vents with metal mesh, so embers cannot get inside.

CalFire’s ReadyForWildfire site has a large set of measures to harden (prepare) your home to help increase its likelihood of survival when wildfire strikes: https://www.readyforwildfire.org/prepare-for-wildfire/get-ready/hardening-your-home/

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