CONSTANT BRUSH ABATEMENT—Ventura County homeowner Scott grabs a handful of weeds and yanks them out of the dirt behind his garage during a wildfire-preparedness media tour Fri., May 13. “If you do it all the time, it doesn’t become a burden,” Scott’s wife, Nancy, explained about their brush clearance habits. IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers Scott and Nancy had big plans for the two acres of property they bought in the hills east of Simi Valley in 1998.

But even in designing their future dream home, the couple knew they had to be practical. They had to plan for fire.

Their blackened jeans told them so.

“As we walked around the property we were getting streaks of creosote on our jeans from a fire two or three years prior. And if that isn’t a wake-up call, I don’t know what is,” said Nancy (the couple asked that their last name not be used).

As a result, every decision they made about construction materials and landscaping was made with fire in mind.

“We knew when we bought this property that fire comes through here. This is the interface between urban areas and wilderness,” Scott said. “We’ve had three fires here since and the house has never been touched even though the fire has come within 25 yards of the house.”

With fire season approaching, the Ventura County Fire Department— in partnership with Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, which insures homes with a high value like Scott and Nancy’s— took the media on a tour of the property May 13 to show what other local homeowners need to do to be prepare for fire.

“This house is a beautiful example of making defensible space and doing it the right way,” said Bill Nash, public information officer for the fire department. “The things they’ve done mean that during a fire we can come in here and we can protect the structure, we can protect the residents and we can protect the firefighters. That’s a win-win-win for us.”

In Ventura County, homeowners who border a natural area— what firefighters call the Wildland Urban Interface—have until June 1 to create a 100-foot defensible space, or buffer zone, around their properties by removing weeds, brush and other vegetation. This barrier can slow or halt the spread of a fire and protect a home from igniting due to direct flame or radiant heat. It also wards off blazes sparked by wind-driven embers.

“In Ventura County, anybody who lives within one mile of a wildland area is in what we call the ember zone,” Nash said.

Scott and Nancy hardened their home against fire from the ground up. Stucco and steel-frame construction is best and their home features 10-inch-thick concrete walls. Also, since fires tend to come over the ridgeline from the northeast, they bermed the north and east walls of the home up to the roofline, so there are no doors or windows through which a fire could enter.

While most residents don’t have the means to build their own fire-safe haven, Nash said, all homeowners should take cues from the couple.

Their home has double-paned windows, which protect against radiant heat that can ignite flammable materials inside or blow out windows. And the windows are shaded with fire-resistant honeycomb blinds instead of curtains.

To keep embers out, the eaves are boxed in and there are no vents into the house. In 2008, the roof was replaced with one that’s “absolutely” fireproof, Scott said. Composite, metal or tile roofing are all good choices, Nash said. The couple also have a dedicated water supply—a fire hydrant—and an indoor high-pressure sprinkler system.

A landscaping palette of native plants like deergrass, buckwheat, coyote bush and lupine, which produces beautiful pink and purple blooms, also protects their home.

Neither the couple nor their gardener do seasonal brush clearance, Nancy said: They constantly maintain their defensible space.

The property is scattered with islands of shrubbery, and the couple make sure there is ample room between the clumps so the brush won’t add fuel to a fire or carry it toward a structure.

They pull sumac, which “burns like a torch,” yearlong and they “lollipop” their bushes and trees, removing lower limbs so that a ground fire can’t creep up.

While the fire department would prefer no landscaping next to a home—particularly no Italian cypress or palm trees, which Nash said burn “like Roman candles”— Scott and Nancy have used plants with a high water content, like succulents. The two are also mindful to remove any dead plants. Nancy said she learned the importance of not waiting on this kind of maintenance during a 2005 fire.

“For the first time in my life I saw spontaneous combustion. I saw dead plants that we hadn’t had the chance to take out yet burst into flame when there was no fire near them.”

Fortunately, no damage was done. Still, Nancy learned her lesson and hopes other residents will take heed.

“When the fire is in the area, it’s too late to decide to clear brush. I know that sounds silly but it’s very hard to get an image of what could happen until you see it barreling down on you.”

By making brush clearance a year-round habit, she added, the work is less burdensome—both on the body and the pocketbook.

Nash agreed, noting that many of the mitigation measures in the department’s Ready, Set, Go! wildfire-preparedness program are easy enough for any homeowner to accomplish on a Saturday afternoon— it just takes a little elbow grease.

“We can’t put a fire engine in every driveway. There’s just not enough, so we ask the residents of Ventura County to do their part.”

Safeguarding one’s own home goes a long way in protecting an entire neighborhood—even a whole community, Nash said.

“If all the homeowners in Ventura County made the commitment that these folks have made to their property, we could put more fire resources out there stopping the fire instead of protecting homes,” he said.

For more tips on ways to protect your home against fire, or a list of fire-resistant plants, visit fire. countyofventura.org and click the “Ready, Set, Go!” banner.