Part 1 – Protecting Your Cottage
With wildfires becoming an ever-growing concern in Canada, it’s important to understand what can be done to protect your home and property from the risk of wildfires. The most important step in protecting yourself is managing the available fuel around your cottage. The FireSmart Canada program is designed to help homeowners protect their property by providing information and resources which can be accessed on their website. The Ontario FireSmart also has a selection of easy to read reference guides. <Click Here for the rest of the article>
From the view of a professional firefighter the value of the program cannot be understated. The process can be summarized as follows:
- No fuels within 1.5 meters of a structure
- Reduce shrubs, evergreen trees, and dead material within 10 meters
- Thin and prune trees within 30 meters
- Day-to-day maintenance such as cleaning out gutters and sweeping dried leaves and needles away from any structures, especially where they might settle in a sheltered area such as against the foundation or under a deck.
One of the main concerns people have with fuel reduction around their property is that it will reduce the aesthetics, particularly for traditional cottages nestled into the landscape. FireSmart doesn’t recommend the removal of all vegetation, rather it maintains a list of drought and fire-resistant plants that are recommended for the 1.5-30 meter zone around a cabin.
While modifying the fuels around your house may not be able to stop the worst fires, it does significantly reduce the intensity of a fire approaching the structure, and it increases the effectiveness of any other efforts to safeguard the house such as metal siding, sprinklers, or direct action by firefighters. Firefighters can protect a house that has been “FireSmarted” more effectively, in less time, and with fewer resources, making a community more resilient for every individual who participates.