BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – After brush fires in Bexar County earlier this year burned hundreds of acres, some homeowners are taking proactive steps to protect their properties.
In March, the Calaveras and Duke fires burned several acres in south and southeast Bexar County.
This week, officials said the Silver Mountain Fire has already burned hundreds of acres.
Summer wildfire season in Texas lasts between July to October.
Lynn Cox, whose home backs up to Government Canyon State Natural Area in northwest Bexar County, said she wants to be prepared.
“We love the natural aspect of this area, but with it comes responsibility,” Cox said. “You need to be able to protect not only yourself but those around you.”
Lt. Stuart Henricksen with the San Antonio Wildfire Department walked KSAT through the outside of Cox’s home to show how to make it fire resistant, starting with the outside of the home.
“So fireproofing is a strong word, right?” Henricksen said. “We’ll talk about making it more fire-resistive. And so, when we’re looking at wildfire risks approaching your home, we’re talking about home ignition zones. So that first five feet would be what we call ‘the immediate zone’ around your house, to include your house, right? So, when you’re building your house or if you’re looking at doing remodels or changing your house, what you want to do is select an exterior that’s non-combustible. So stucco, hardy plank, rock, stuff like that. As an alternative to wood, right, a log cabin. Something that’s more flammable and combustible.”
Henricksen said sealing up any openings from the bottom to the top and from the windows and to the attic is key.
“If you’re building on a pier and beam, there’s instances that people have no skirting underneath their house and what that causes is for embers to wash underneath their and create a fire hazard,” Henricksen said.
He said keeping old leaves, brush or bushes against your home can become a hazard.
“If we look over at this bush here, you know, worst case scenario, it’s not irrigated. It’s dying out. It’s not maintained,” Henricksen said. “This bush catches on fire and it’s next to that window and you have drapes or curtains or blinds that are combustible inside your house.”
When it comes to the five to 30 feet around your home, Henricksen said homeowners should want to keep their landscaping cleaned up to create breaks in the fire.
“Whenever you trim your bushes and your trees, about six to 10 feet off the ground, that creates that gap between the ground fire and a canopy fire,” Henricksen said.
If possible, keep trees at a distance from your home.
“You don’t want overlapping trees on top of the house,” Henricksen said. “Because what that does is, over time, it creates a leaf accumulation on places where you have roof pitch changes or in your gutters. You want to make sure that those are cleaned out every year, especially during the beginning of the fire seasons.”
Yards should also be maintained on a regular basis, as well.
“We can’t keep our grass green all summer, but if you at least cut it down, instead of leaving it high as a foot to two feet, if you can cut it to like four inches or lower, that’s going to create that horizontal fuel pattern instead of having that higher fuel loading that’s in a vertical arrangement,” Henricksen said. “That would create a higher intensity fire.”
Planting native trees and plants around the home can also make it more fire resistant.
“We know junipers, right? Our local cedar trees are more fire-volatile than our oak trees are,” Henricksen said. “So, oak trees, they don’t burn as readily as cedar tree do. So you’re a little safer with oaks around your house.”
That goes for other native vegetation, as well. Cox, who is a master gardener with Bexar County, said she plants native.
“These are plants, our native plants, are ones that have evolved here in Texas, so they handle the stress. They handle the off-and-on rainfalls that we have,” Cox said. “And so, if a tree is healthy, you know, and isn’t producing a lot of dead wood, it’s going to be less susceptible to those fires. The same thing with well-adapted plants. These are plants that may have originated in other areas, but they’ve proven through the test of time that they handle our conditions well. And again, they provide a healthy aspect to the garden that keeps it fresh and less flammable.”
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