From wet to warm: Fire season nears

Dry winds, grasses a risky combination, so keep your yard trimmed, officials warn

June 14, 2006

By COREY YOUNG
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

Firefighters are in the business of offering yard-care tips this summer: "Lean and green."

When you go outside to garden or mow the lawn, keeping those words of wisdom in mind goes a long way toward reducing your home's fire risk during hot, dry weather, Petaluma's fire prevention officials said.

"If there's any dry grass or brush or shrubs, those should be cut down," said Michael Ginn, the city's fire marshal.

Weather is heating up and "it won't take long for those green hills to not look green anymore," he said.

Large grassy parcels around town have been mowed recently as the city completes its annual weed abatement program, urging property owners to keep their land free of brush -- or else the city will do it for them, at a price.

The same care should be taken by private homeowners, even those in tract subdivisions who think they're out of danger, Ginn said.

But in Petaluma, outlying homes near open space are at higher risk, he said.

"The homes that border the open areas are the ones most susceptible to the threats," Ginn said. If those homes have shake roofs, that adds to the dangerous mix, he said.

"That's kind of an invitation for a fire to do some damage," he said. If a rural wildfire throws burning embers into the air and they land on homes with wooden roofing, "they're going to catch on fire," he added.

But homeowners can take some simple actions to guard against wildfire dangers. Keeping in mind the "lean and green" mantra, dead grass, leaves and tree branches should be trimmed, especially close to the home -- a "defensible space," fire agencies call it.

"The biggest thing is cutting the grass on an appropriate day, when it's a little cooler, when there's no wind," added Frank Treanor, chief of the Rancho Adobe Fire District.

Residents should be mindful of the humidity level before trimming yards and fields because dry air helps fan flames, Treanor said.

"When you get down to a humidity below 30 percent, that's a real fire danger," he said.

It's also important to remember to clean out gutters that are still full of debris from the winter storms, Ginn said. A rain gutter filled with dry pine needles, for example, is a significant danger, he said.

Treanor said residents in hilly areas have to clear dead material to a greater distance -- at least 50 feet for moderately sloped property -- because fires burn uphill. If a low-lying shrub starts to burn, it could act as "ladder fuel" that ignites treetops above it, he said.

Making your yard "lean and green" is just the first step -- "It's got to stay that way," Ginn said.

And it has to stay that way for a while. In California, fire season can last well into October, when temperatures can sometimes rise higher than the traditional summer months, Ginn said.

Petaluma and its neighboring fire departments have mapped out "mutual threat zones" where the wildfire risk is greatest, mostly on the west side.

"Any fire that occurs within that belt is already in our dispatch system and we throw the book at it," Ginn said. "We can hit it pretty hard, and we do."

He said a town full of well-kept yards, pastures and fields can aid the department's firefighting ability. Two summers ago, a fire on Graylawn Avenue destroyed one house and slightly burned another after it jumped a cleared-out open area, but the damage would have been worse if no clearing had been done, he said.

"Do as much as you can so if it does get ahead of us, we can hit it hard with our resources and try to contain it," Ginn said.

(Contact Corey Young at cyoung@arguscourier.com)