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Most home owners are unaware of the need and benefits of proper maintenance of trees on property. I was guilty of it, assuming it's mother nature, they can take care of themselves. I hired an Arborist for 1 an hour walk through in identifying, assessing and maintaining their health, as well how to spot trees that are struggling either from deficiencies or over crowding, and signs of borers and the potential underlying stresses the trees are undergoing contributing to their demise.

I was in the 1964 Santa Rosa/Sonoma fire. I saw the fire jump about 200 yds of cleared firebreak come straight to the home and jump straight over green irrigated hedges and not burn a thing, it just kept going down the hill. In Marin, the 6 ft tall Scotch Broom in the canyons around Greebrae is a disaster waiting to happen.

What flammablesurface, our crawl space is dirt.

In Europe, most homes have ceramic tile, not Asphalt or shingles... We had planned for steel roof covering on our home in BC, as we had a forest fire that stopped just at our property line, with a couple of splashes of retardant on our property... Thinking about embers!

There are guidelines in BC about clearance from trees, and they vary by tree type and tree height... I'm sure that not many people keep over 100 ft/30m clear, all 4 sides! But, in dry country, and winds. You also need to keep evergreen needles clear around the yard, they'll flash up and bring fire across in a minute... I fought a couple of big fires as a younger person, and saw a hillside light up, along tree tops, in 30-60 SECONDS!

Things like this need to be taught in grade school nationwide. It could be taught in a similar manner as sex-ed or driver's education. Many people may be familiar with the laws, concept, or idea of this but very few actually have a comprehensive understanding. These classes should be funded by the homeowner's insurance company providers as it's in their interest to have a population that has been taught how to effectively reduce the risk of losing their own property..

This applies everywhere! In Wisconsin, I bought a place that had a pine plantation on one side and thick woods on the other. I spent 2-3 years cleaning up all the dead wood in both and maintaining fire breaks. When the fire hit, it stayed on the ground and didn't get into the crown. Everywhere else got hit with a crown fire. House is brick with metal roof and very little to no exposed wood. During the fire we pumped out of the pool and kept the fire out of the woodshed and did ember control on the roof. The fire cleaned up all the small stuff left from cleaning and barely touched the trees. Have heated my house for the last 2 years on the remnants of the woods that weren't cared for. Which reminds me, time to clean the chimney again.

In the soffit panels installed in this video I did not see any ventilation holes.

Thankyou, Marin - very helpful

I have the same question as above. My house eaves also don’t have a facia board like thenone shown. Do i need to take the gutters off, install a facia board to full enclose the soffit? Or can i use the gutter as a facia board like it appears in the video. Looks like just sealed the fiber board to the gutters. Or did you sneak in a veryical board behind the gutters?

Putting the old saw about "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" to the test. If you hate taxes, don't cry when the Fire Dept "fails" you do to underfunding and your own laziness about doing your chores.

Stop thinking about what your neighbors "should do" and start thinking about what YOU can do.

Always heard the air can be 1400*F 100 yards from a wildfire.

Been through three fires and first thing that goes out is electricity, so some of this isn’t applicable

I grew up in West Marin Inverness Park. Still have the house I grew up in. I found this video incredibly helpful to explain more of what I need to do. Because I grew up in an era where we were ignorant about such things it's been a bit of a slow slog to understand what is necessary now

This is a great series of videos, and you make a lot of great points in this one. But for those of us who already have substantial wood decks, wood ceilings on our patios, or just, like most houses, wood eaves, after taking all of your other recommendations, I would sure like to know if there were any coatings that would help make our decks, patios or eaves less prone to ignition? Even if they have to be reapplied every year etc.

Question: When you put the screen on the vented cement fiber board, how did you apply the screen. This was not shown, but I see what appears to be six pieces of tape. Did you use construction glue or something else to ensure the screen is flush & no embers penetrate between the two products? I am planning on doing this to my home...

are 1/8 mesh good enough over regular mesh or do you have to buy special vent fireproof mesh for total protection?

🎉Why would anyone listen to any information from a California firefighter 😅LOL your state's been Burning constantly for the last 50 years you guys suck😢

I live in southeast Georgia on a farm with timber as the main crop. WE NEVER LET scrub vegetation get to be like what I see here. The buildup of constable material around that house is unbelievable. On my timber I do CONTROL BURNS every other year just to keep the unwanted constable material at a low level. I just don't understand why California does not adopt this effective and doable technology

They sure bent the hell out of that door.

Kind of moot where I live in the central Sierras. When a wildfire fueled by up to, no exageration, 50 foot thick years old accumulation of underbrush, and 600 weak and sickly trees per acre because no logging is allowed and no fires are allowed to burn and there's no budget for controlled Burns, when a wildfire fueled by that comes up the hill to my house defensible space is not going to make a rat's ass of difference. When we change our state and national leaders who control Forest policy maybe that will change. But until then, unless my house is built with foot thick concrete walls and steel roof, it's going to burn.

This is exactly what I needed to further protect my home and my neighbors' homes from wildfires. Thank-you from beautiful Orcas Island!

Green grass = water = good

What an absolute idiot and pussy this man was to stand there and do nothing to try to put this out!

Check and observe wind direction now and study, study forecast.

If I still had water pressure, I would “soak” the roof, yard and walls of my home. Sort of wishful doing, but if you wanted the best chance why not.

I have seen Italian cypress over over the place in Pacific Palisades.

I'm saddened that these preventative measures were not informed and encouraged 10 20 30 or more years ago. Look how many houses and lives were lost. And the burden on the insurance companies. To fire safety engineers this is common knowledge and should be made common sense for all home owners. Also see videos about buying pump to use swimming pool water. Videos on sprinklers to wet down roofs and around house. Tree and brush maintenance is very important. This was done decades ago, but not lately in the past 30 years roughly since the increase in yearly fires. If the information i read was correct. If you lived in the area you would know more about this than me.

Large scale lumber, ranching and general business use of public and private lands suppress the amount of fuels available, clearing under power lines, water storage and fire roads are critical as well, but in California we have had decades of wild lands management that prioritize ecological misanthropic theories over social and wildlife welfare.

Amazing vids. Just shared your web site and YT channel with my community in the Peninsula. The So Cal fires have really shaken people up here (rightfully so). I'm trying to find some positivity in that we don't get those crazy Santa Ana winds.

The Palasades fire raced *downhill* to the ocean because of the hurricane-force Santa Ana winds. Fortunately, those are pretty rare.

Although this was done in Marin County, I wonder how something similar to this done in the Pacific Palisades area would have fared before the recent fire burning most of the community to the ground.

Thanks for the clarity, Chief! embers embers embers- so many losses - sharing the examples is so important!

I worked for two clients who lost their homes in the CZU Fire in the Santa Cruz Mtns. I saw photos provided by the homeowners in each case of their homes before the fire. Both had plenty of defensible space around their homes and they lost them anyway. The reason is twofold. The first is how hot and fast moving the fire was. On the crest of the mountain where one of the homes was, it was a like a blow torch as the fire passed over the mountain top at high speed. The second reason is because the fire suppression efforts could in no way cover speedily enough the huge area of the fire from San Mateo County down through to Santa Cruz County. The second home not mentioned earlier was on the east side of the mountain, had green lawn all around it, redwoods limbed up high, everything done right. But embers from the crest of the mountain fell almost like snow on the east side of the mountain and certain homes were hit and lit on fire while others right next door survived.

What about clean wood chips ?.Should i use woodchips for weed abatement or landscaping ?

I am in Ashland, OR and this is applicable for us too. You are so clear and organized the presentation so well! I never knew how everything worked together. I am going to recommend your idea to our fire chief.

Check out the firesmart program in British Columbia, it uses a combination of all techniques from fuel removal to fireproofing the structures and landscaping. I have seen the results firsthand with untouched homes next to burned out homes. They offer a small financial incentive if you comply with the program requirements, not usually enough to offset the cost but the professional advice is free.

"more water" won't be allowed under the increasingly reduced urban water regulations. Plants will have to be removed.

Gravel instead of organic mulch will hold heat in summer, allow trees' roots to dry out, and ultimately kill the trees. It would be better to remove the trees to begin with.

Avoid all non native vegetation within 30 feet of your structure. Also install roof sprinkler systems.

build a moat!

Let that bush burn and put the water on the brush that is NOT burning and the home. Don't try and extinguish all of the brush. Let it burn. Just save the homes. There was a video of a rural fire approaching an asphalt road with many fire fighters and trucks. They wanted to stop the fire at the road. As the fire approached they tried to put out brush just like this and they wasted water. The road stopped 99.9% of the fire but a few tiny embers crossed the road and started tiny fires. The fire fighters couldn't reach them so they grew and grew and the fire continued on. They just needed a few portable fire sprayers and they could have stopped it but they were not smart enough.

Cities allow for the construction of structures that aren't fireproof. It's a mystery that they burn down. 🤡

Thanks

Are these listed in which manner (easiest to accomplish, most important, etc)? How can the compartments be kept more cool? Wouldn't the electrical flow incite flammability? Which locations would using lights be more helpful (suburban vs rural) vs not helpful? Wouldn't leaving water hoses on the roof be more efficient, if possible? Are there fence preservatives that are also fire retardant? What about the use of silk screen material as a small-aperature cover? It incinerates like silk & doesn't burn or leave a pill, and allows airflow. How is popular technical textiles like Sunbrella? I have heard that one method of identifying if everyone has left the room or building is to leave a while fabric (usu. White sock) on the handle. How "universal" is that concept; are there other code-signs like that?

Thank You for this helpful advice!

Counterpoint to the burning embers: The final home shown at 20:33 had a wall to reflect the radiated heat. That home surely had a shower of burning embers but it also has a composite roof, so there was nothing for the embers to ignite. Without the wall it's likely that radiated heat would have ignited the house. Discuss.

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Should you use these for indoor air return vents too?