HELENA — No matter how much or how little moisture we get in the Treasure State, we will have a fire season. Taking steps now can potentially save your home.
“Really, the best time to start to prepare your home or your property for a wildfire is now,” said West Valley Fire Rescue Chief David Hamilton.
Watch: Now is the time to prepare your home for wildfires:
Firefighters recommend taking a look around your property to see what you can do to make your home less likely to be damaged by wildfires.
Some of the things you can do are trimming trees, cleaning up leaves and gutters, and keeping firewood far enough away - the distance makes a difference.
“Remove things around the home,” said Tri-County FireSafe Working Group board president Lois Olsen. “There's a zone around the home that's a 0-5 foot zone where we like it to be lean and green and clean.”
For people who like having decorative landscaping, they recommend shrubs less receptive to fire, and note that some plant species can pose more of a risk than others.
“Junipers are one that we see all the time, and junipers are like lighting a candle next to your house,” Hamilton warns. “They burn really well.”
Fire officials say taking action on your property goes a long way to helping the community.
“When you protect yourself, you protect your neighbor,” Olsen said. “When your neighbor protects themselves, they protect you, and that's really what it's all about. You don't want the fire to spread from house to house as we've seen.”
Another important reason to take the time to work on your property is that it helps protect firefighters if there is a fire.
“If folks are doing mitigation work around their homes, it makes it safer for our folks to be able to get in there and more easily defend their homes.”
Tri-County FireSafe Working Group, a group whose mission is to promote wildfire risk awareness, offers resources to help, including a free ignition home assessment, sending a professional to help you catch anything you missed on your own.
Tri-County FireSafe hosted a wildfire film screening at the Myrna Loy on Thursday evening to meet with the community and make people aware of the resources they offer for wildfire preparedness.
Hamilton noted that in most properties he’s responded to, people haven’t done any preparations, but it's not too late to take the necessary steps.
“When a fire is burning is not the time to try to figure out how to defend your home,” Hamilton said.
