Defensible Space: Star Wars or Wildfire Protection?

7/29/2021 (Permalink)

If your home is damaged by fire or any other reason, SERVPRO of North Kenosha County is ready and able to repair any damage.

One of any home or property owner’s greatest fears is having things go up in flames, and wildfires are a more frequent perpetrator of property loss than you might imagine. Wildfires are seemingly inexhaustible, and with so much of our world being made of organic or combustible material, it’s quite a feat that we can even manage to contain them.

But there are some passive ways we can protect our homes and stop wildfires, aside from the simplest and most impactful, which would be simply being more careful.

Let’s look at a concept called “defensible space.”

<h3is-defensible-space">What Is Defensible Space?

It’s not a new Star Wars movie—“defensible space” is a series of buffer zones you can create around your home by getting rid of wildfire fuel like brush and dead trees, adding gravel, concrete or flame retardant plants near your house, pruning your plants to prevent fire from spreading easily between them, and keeping trees and shrubs at a safe distance from one another.

Think of it as a protective barrier (aka defense), designed to shelter your home in the event of a wildfire by depleting a fire’s fuel sources as it comes near. Defensible space also gives firefighters their best chance of stopping a wildfire before it breaches your home’s perimeter.

Defensible space isn’t required by law in Wisconsin, but it’s a good fire safety principle to consider all the same.

<h3defensible-space-matters">Why Defensible Space Matters

You may think of wildfires as primarily a problem in western states, but they can happen anywhere. There were over 59,000 wildfires across the United States in 2020.

Even if we negate California’s 10,000+ fires, the average number of wildfires per state in 2020 was almost 1,000, and every state experienced at least a few.

Wisconsin suffered 781 wildfires last year, destroying almost 1,800 acres of land. And there has been a 25% increase in the number of fires so far in 2021.

We should take any opportunity to make it more difficult for wildfires to consume our property, and defensible space is a reasonable step to take that could yield home-saving results.

If your home is damaged by fire of any sort, wild or not, SERVPRO is ready and able to repair the damage caused. Get in touch today to get the pros on your team.