5 Ways Tree Maintenance Protects Your Home from Fires
Proper tree maintenance helps keep your trees safe and attractive, but it can serve an often-overlooked purpose that could be just as important: fire protection. How does tree pruning and care help reduce your overall fire risk? Here are five of the most important and valuable ways.
1. Reduce Dead or Dying Trees
Diseased and dead trees are a hazard on many levels. Their biggest ongoing risk is that they may fall on people or structures. Many dying trees rot from the inside and may not appear obviously dangerous until it's too late. They also can spread disease to other trees and damage or kill them.
But the same factors that make unhealthy trees a falling risk also make them prime targets for fire combustion. A fire may be able to eat up an unhealthy tree faster and easier than a healthy one. Dry and brittle trees, as well as dead leaves, provide plenty of flammable material if not removed promptly.
2. Thin Out Canopies
Canopies — the leafy overhead bulk of any tree — grow and provide shade, but they can also be a fire hazard. Since canopies from multiple trees spread and intertwine, they allow a fire to jump easily from one tree to the next. They may even meet up with neighboring trees, causing your neighbor's house fire to expand straight to your own property.
Thinning out canopies keeps them farther apart and creates a bigger natural barrier for fire to breach. It also reduces the volume of flammable leaves and allows water and snow to better reach the lower levels where fires can hide.
3. Create Defense Zones
The USDA recommends a multi-layered zone approach to wildfire damage mitigation around your home. How you manage your trees plays a huge role — possibly the biggest role — in building these defensible zones.
Thinner and healthier perimeter forests on your property slow down a fire by making it harder to spread. The middle zones between these and the house's immediate area should have even fewer trees separated by more distance (often 10 feet between branches) and kept well-irrigated. And the closest zones may need to be tree-free to protect the house's roof and siding.
4. Stay Clear of Obstacles
One of the most important ways any property owner can reduce fire risk is by keeping their trees pruned safely away from utility and power lines. Storms and high winds can easily cause a tree's branches to touch live wires, possibly resulting in a serious fire.
But lower tree elements can cause trouble around utilities and functional parts of your home as well. Roots may damage pipes and drainage systems that manage water. They may put outdoor electrical equipment, such as barbeques and air conditioners, at risk. And overgrown trees can block your view or ability to reach fires from these sources.
5. Minimize Lower Level Brush
Tree canopies aren't the only fire risk around a house. Don't overlook the risks in the lower regions of your trees.
Just as the USDA recommends a safe distance between canopies, it also recommends at least 8 feet of clearance from the ground. Proper pruning helps maintain this fire-resistant section and increases access among trees in case of emergency. You may also need to remove brush and broken branches from the ground and even clear out stumps that could provide more flammable material to incoming fires.
Where to Start
Want to know more about improving your home's fire resistance? Start by consulting with Baumann Tree. We'll assess your trees to determine the best way to keep them healthy while protecting your home and family. Call today to make an appointment.
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