Creating defensible space around your home is one of the most important ways you can protect yourself and home in the event of a wildfire scenario. First, ensure that you have clear access to your home. No branches hanging over the driveway or your home and nothing blocking the driveway or cluttering up the yard. All this can fuel a fire and make your home difficult or impossible to protect. Second, clear at least 30 feet around your home. Make sure you keep the grass short, don’t have wood stacked against the house, no trees or branches close to the house, keep flowers and bushes in flower beds trimmed, and limit the use of bark dust. Bark dust holds heat and allows fire to smolder for hours to days before igniting. It also can spontaneously combust when in the heat for long periods of time. Finally, trim up trees on your property so there are no limbs within 10 feet of the ground. This prevents fire from climbing up trees and getting into the canopy. Clean up pine needles and dead vegetation from your property. Use fire resistant plants in your flower gardens and keep everything green. Use fire resistant home materials such as metal roofs and make sure there is no moss, pine needles, or other dead vegetation on your roof and keep the gutters cleaned out. If you have wood on your home, such as decks, siding, or roofs, be sure to regularly treat them to help keep them fire resistant. If you follow these tips, your house can survive a wildland fire with little to no help from firefighters.