Fire Zones and What They Mean for Your Home
When the weather is hot and dry, and conditions are just right, wildfires happen. They are more common in some parts of the country than others, but it’s important to remember a fire can break out anywhere. And when it does, your home and your family are at risk.
Know whether your home is located in a high-risk fire zone and what to do to protect it.
What’s your zone?
A fire hazard zone is a region that has characteristics that put it at higher risk for wildfires, such as:
-
- A history of fires in the region over a 30-50-year period
- Dry, hot, and windy weather that cause fires to spread faster
- Forests and vegetation that act as fuel for fire
- Steep slopes where fire often burns faster
- The potential for fires to burn through the top layer of foliage
- Burning embers that could spread to urban areas
Millions of homes are located in or near fire hazard severity zones. U.S. states most impacted by wildfires include California, Oregon, and Arizona. California has classified its fire zones as moderate, high, and very high. These areas are mapped by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The zones help property owners and builders better protect structures in areas at high risk.
Other states also affected by recent wildfires include Washington, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Texas, Alaska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Florida. There’s been a population boom in these drought-sensitive regions, which means there’s an increased risk of human activity sparking a fire.
The nonprofit, First Street Foundation, has an online risk factor tool where you can search for your region’s fire risk. You also can find information from your state’s Department of Forestry. If your home is in a fire hazard zone, make sure that your community is an active Firewise USA® site working with local foresters to reduce risks.
How can you protect your home?
In addition to your community working to reduce risk, there are steps you can take to help better protect your home from wildfires.
The USDA Forest Service has divided your home and property into three zones based on research into how homes ignite. Addressing each of these zones will help to reduce the risk of a fire on your property.
Immediate Zone (Less than 5 feet) – your home and the area immediately surrounding it
-
- Seal your windows and doors to reduce the risk of embers getting inside your home. (Embers are burning pieces of wood that can be carried by winds for more than a mile.)
- Use insulated glass, which can hold heat longer than standard glass.
- Avoid acrylic skylights that could melt.
- Paint decking with fireproof paint.
- Consider other fireproof materials, from siding to roofing to metal or fiber-cement doors.
- Declutter the gutter.
- Replace missing shingles on roofs, to protect against embers.
- Install 1/8-inch metal mesh screening in exterior attic vents, also to protect against embers.
- Remove any flammable materials, including leaves, plants, or stored items away from your home’s exterior walls and from under decks or porches.
- Trim branches that hang over your home.
- Consider the installation of sprinkler heads on your roof, patio, or deck.
Intermediate Zone (5-30 feet) – landscaping and hardscaping around your home
-
- Slow the spread of fire toward your home with driveways and walkways to allow a safe area for firefighters to be able to fight the fire.
- Remove flammable vegetation and replace with stones or drought-resistant plants with high water content.
- Use crushed stone or gravel rather than flammable mulches.
- Remove vegetation underneath trees that could help the trees catch fire.
- Space trees in clusters that are 18 feet between the trees’ crowns. If there’s a slope, increase that distance.
- Keep the grass mowed short, to four inches.
- Emergency vehicles need driveways that are 12 feet wide and have a vertical clearance of 15 feet. Check that your property can accommodate them.
Extended Zone (30-100 feet) – the vegetation and land that extends 30 feet past your house
-
- Keep trees at least 12 feet apart (between canopy crowns) within 30-60 feet of your home. Keep trees at least 6 feet apart within 60-100 feet of your home.
- Pick up debris and dead plant material.
- Remove vegetation that is near storage sheds or other structures.
- Make sure your home and street are clearly marked for first responders.
Finally…
- Clean your home with fire safety in mind so that you don’t accidentally cause a fire.
- Create a family disaster plan so that everyone knows what to do in the event of a fire. Make disaster preparations for your pets as well.
- Make sure you have home insurance that protects against damage caused by natural disasters such as wildfires. The right insurance provides peace of mind in the event of a fire.
This article is furnished by California Casualty, providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.
Fire Prevention Starts in the Yard
Dry, hot weather makes the risk of fire especially dangerous in many parts of the country. Even if you’re not in a region prone to wildfires, you could be affected. Fires can happen anywhere, and once they start, they can spread quickly, putting your property and home at risk.
Fire prevention starts in the yard, and there are some simple steps that you can take to protect your home and property.
Fire Prevention Steps to Take for Free
-
- Remove flammable materials from your yard, especially from 5 feet around your home. These include bark mulch, dried leaves, and garden debris. Also, remove any tree branches that hang low and could fall on your house.
- Keep your yard clean by regular raking. Use a steel rake to remove dead grass and leaves and place them on a tarp. Then transfer them into a leaf bag placed far from your house or put them into a fireproof composter.
- Replace your plants with low flammability plants. While no plant is fireproof, there are some plants that are more difficult to ignite due to their high moisture content. These include sedum, succulents, cacti, lilac, and lavender.
- Pro Tip: Highly flammable plants often have gummy sap and/or leaves that carry a strong odor when crushed. It’s probably best to avoid these types of plants.
- Space your plants farther apart so it’s harder for them to ignite each other. Also, keep plants and grass watered regularly. Avoid planting anything that could catch fire and block your escape from windows or doors.
- Do not store anything under your deck that can catch fire. Move any stored wood well away from your house.
- Follow fire pit and barbecue safety when using those items.
Low to Moderate Cost Fire Prevention Adjustments
-
- Remove wooden or plastic garden borders and replace them with stone or corrugated steel landscape edging. Replace mulch with gravel or seashells.
- Cover your eaves or openings in the exterior walls of your home with 1/8-inch metal screens to block embers.
- Install metal gutter guards to keep leaves and pine needles out of gutters. These can become dry and brittle and add fuel to a fire.
- If you have a deck, install metal wire mesh no larger than 1/8 inch to prevent dry leaves from collecting underneath.
- Plant deciduous trees, such as Serviceberry trees, that don’t produce a lot of dead wood. Avoid conifers such as pine, juniper, or spruce trees.
More Costly Fire Prevention Actions
-
- Redo your wooden deck with fire-resistant decking materials.
- Add hardscaping to your property. This can create a break in vegetation that can slow down or stop the spread of a fire. Plan for paths at least 4 feet wide.
- Install concrete retaining walls. These also can help slow or stop a spreading fire.
- Consider fiber cement or aluminum siding which stand up to heat better than their more combustible alternatives such as vinyl. You also can add flame retardants to wood siding or surfaces.
- Add steel exterior shutters to pull down over windows to keep a fire’s heat from shattering the glass. You also can install double or triple-paned windows.
In Case of a House Fire
Make sure that you are in the best position to protect your property and your home in case a fire does occur. Here are some ways that you can prepare.
-
- Check your property to ensure that emergency vehicles, including firetrucks, will have easy access to your home and can get close enough to deploy their hoses.
- Keep a hose available in your shed or fire extinguisher on your property away from your house in case you need it.
- Make sure you have smoke detectors on every floor of your home and check them monthly.
- Store extra extension cords nearby in case you need them. They may be useful to power emergency lights after dark.
- Create a family disaster plan so that everyone knows what to do in the event of a fire. Make disaster preparations for your pets as well.
- Make sure you have home insurance that protects against damage caused by natural disasters such as wildfires. The right insurance provides peace of mind in the event of a fire.
This article is furnished by California Casualty, providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.
The Benefits of Bundling Your Coverages
Do you want to save money on your insurance payments? Did you know there’s a way to do that without raising your deductible or lowering your coverage? The answer is bundling.
What is bundling? It’s a term to describe a multi-policy discount. If you have more than one policy with an insurance company, you may bundle those policies and, in the process, you can save on all.
Here’s why you might consider bundling:
-
- Bundling can save you money. Depending upon the amount of coverage for your policies, and your state, you can save from 5% to 25%.
- Bundling is convenient. It simplifies bill paying and record keeping since you interact with just one insurer.
- Bundling can help ensure you are fully covered. Having all policies with one company allows your insurance advisor to review any gaps in coverage.
There are many different ways to bundle your insurance.
Homeowner’s Insurance Bundles
Your home is one of your greatest investments; you need to make sure that it’s fully protected. There are plenty of decisions to make when buying your own policy- from coverage limits to extra protection for your belongings. One of those decisions might be to incorporate additional coverage to enhance your policy. When you bundle those with your home insurance, you can save money.
You can choose to bundle your home insurance with:
- Sump pump endorsement: A sump pump is a device that collects excess water and drains it outside your home. Sump pump coverage covers the costs of repair and replacement in the event of a sump pump failure. Just a couple inches of water backup can cause thousands of dollars in damage – ruining carpets, destroying appliances, and crumbling drywall.
- Flood insurance: Regular home insurance does not cover flood damage. That’s why many people in flood zones purchase this extra policy. There is a 30-day waiting period to buy flood insurance, so take that into consideration.
- Auto insurance: If you have a vehicle, you likely have liability, collision, and/or comprehensive insurance. Liability coverage is used to pay for damages that you cause. Collision coverage helps to pay to repair your vehicle or get one of equivalent cash value if yours is totaled. Comprehensive coverage is for damage to your vehicle other than collisions, such as natural disasters, fires, vandalism, theft, and animals that damage your vehicle.
- College students and renter’s insurance: If your college student* lives away at school, his or her belongings are covered by your homeowner’s policy at 10% of the limit of liability or $1,000, whichever is greater. You may want more coverage than 10%. Talk to your insurance advisor about expanding limits, such as an umbrella policy to cover expensive items your student is bringing to college. Alternatively, consider purchasing renter’s insurance for your college student for an off-campus apartment. Renter’s insurance not only protects your student’s possessions but offers them emergency housing if they are unable to reside in the rental unit. Renter’s insurance is surprisingly affordable, so when you bundle it with your homeowner’s, it could practically be free!
*Note that college students must meet certain requirements in order to qualify as an insured on your homeowner’s policy. This includes age limitations, family relationship, and full-time enrollment in school. In the event of theft coverage, they must have lived in the location 60 days immediately before the loss.
- Earthquake Insurance: If you live in an area that is prone to earthquakes, you may want to consider this additional coverage. Homeowner, condo, and rental insurance policies typically do not cover earthquakes.
- Umbrella policies: This type of policy provides additional personal liability insurance that starts to pay after your underlying limits of liability on your home insurance policy have been exhausted after a covered loss. While there’s no way to know for sure how much liability coverage you may need, understanding what you stand to lose is a good place to start. If you’re being sued, it’s possible that equity in your home, your personal savings, and your income may be at risk. If the value of two years of your annual income, the equity in your home, and your savings exceed the liability limits on your auto or home insurance policies, then you should consider an umbrella policy to protect your net worth.
Renter’s Insurance Bundles
Renter’s insurance is like homeowner’s insurance but for tenants. Starting at about $10 a month, it protects your personal belongings (that’s right, your landlord’s insurance policy will not cover your belongings) but that’s not all. It’s an important safeguard if you’re found at fault for property damage or injuries at your place (and even around the world). It also can help if you don’t have access to your apartment or home due to a covered loss.
You can choose to bundle your renter’s insurance with:
- Auto insurance: As described above, auto insurance helps protect you in the event of an accident or other damage to your car. When you bundle your renter’s policy with an auto policy that you already have, the savings can be substantial.
- Pet insurance: Our pets are like family and we want to keep them as healthy as possible. Pet insurance can help to offset those veterinary expenses. Depending on your policy, pet insurance may cover exams, prescriptions, lab tests and x-rays, surgeries, emergency visits, and even cancer. You make the initial payment and then are reimbursed depending upon the deductible and limits that you have selected. (Pet insurance also may be bundled with homeowner’s, too.)
Auto Insurance Bundles
Auto and homeowner’s insurance, and auto and renter’s policies, are among the most popular types of insurance bundles. However, you also may wish to bundle your car insurance with a boat policy.
- Boats and personal watercraft: If you have a boat, you will need a boat insurance policy. You also need a separate policy for personal watercraft such as jet skis. The policies protect you from vandalism, accidents, and liability for injuries to others.
*Note that motorcycle insurance is not eligible for a bundling discount. However, if you live in a cold climate state, and only ride your bike in warmer months, you can ask about seasonal coverage.
Each year, California Casualty policyholders save an average of $423* a year. That could be even more if you decide to bundle your coverages. See how much you can save and get started with a free quote today at mycalcas.com/quote.
This article is furnished by California Casualty, providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.
