Most of us have heard the old adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It’s true.
Smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms are our first line of defense against these kinds of tragedies. With carbon monoxide, they are sometimes our only defense. Carbon monoxide is odorless and colorless. The only hint you may get is your housemates’ lips turn purple before they pass out and then pass away.
Now is the time to prepare your home for fire season – and to minimize the risk of a house fire. Let’s start with the outdoors. As the weather improves and you begin spending more time outdoors, keep the barbecue and the fuel for it away from the house, and do not cook under any eaves.
As the need for yard work and other outdoor projects increases, store your mower and weed whacker’s gas and oil away from the house in safe containers, and do not put oily rags in a pile when you’re done working, as they can spontaneously combust. Some people think this is an old wives’ tale; it isn’t. Look it up online to see just how fast a pile of oily rags can burst into flames. It only takes hours. In addition to keeping the grass down, you should remove shrubs, branches, and other fire fodder away from the house.
For a detailed list of ways to reduce the risk of wildfire, visit the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council’s website at firesafemendocino.org. They offer free home assessments, information on state programs to defray the cost of mitigating fire risk, and a whole bunch of great information from evacuation planning to home hardening and more. I highly recommend that everyone in Mendocino County visits this website at least once. I am confident you’ll learn something you didn’t know.
Preventing wildfire from wreaking havoc in our community requires a concerted effort. Taking care of our own property also protects our neighbor’s property. Briefly, you should create a defensible space around your home of at least five feet, which means removing all flammable landscaping. You should also trim branches up from the ground and remove any branches that hang over your roof. Not only can they catch fire, but they can also drop debris, which can cause your roof to deteriorate faster, and they can break off and crash through your roof. If you like the shade those branches provide, plant new trees strategically – but at a distance from your house.
Make sure wooden backyard fences do not attach to the house to prevent fire (and termites) from using the fence as a path to your home. Install spark-arresting screens on your chimney, attic and sub-area vents. The best screens are coated with a plastic that melts shut in the event of a fire, cutting off the fire’s oxygen supply and preventing embers from entering the attic. If you need to replace siding, consider using flame-resistant Hardie board.
Inside the house, clean your dryer vent regularly, even if it’s a pain like it is at my house. My dryer vent goes up and into the attic and then out, so it forces all the lint from my dryer up ten feet and then out. Given this crummy design, lint regularly accumulates in the vent. You may have a similar situation. Although cleaning the vent is inconvenient, a house fire would be far more inconvenient.
If you have a chimney, get it cleaned every year. If you have electrical cords running under throw rugs or bending around obstacles, move them if you can. At the very least, make sure the cords don’t get frayed. Unplug things when they are not in use. High-energy appliances should be plugged directly into outlets, not power strips. Refrigerators, coffee makers, toasters, slow cookers, hair dryers, air conditioners, blenders, washing machines, portable heaters, power tools, and gaming components that consume a lot of energy or cycle on and off can become dangerous when plugged into a power strip.
If you are the victim of a house fire, you’ll need to deal with your homeowners insurance company, and they will likely want proof of your possessions before agreeing to replace them. It’s not hard to create a record. Grab your cell phone and go through every room in your house, video recording and narrating as you go. Open closets and drawers. Inventory everything in them. Take video of your artwork, the contents of your garage, the inside of your medicine cabinet – everything from floor to ceiling. Photograph receipts of expensive items. Then, store that video where it won’t go up in flames if the house does.
If you have questions about property management or real estate, please contact me at [email protected] or call (707) 462-4000. If you have an idea for a future column, share it with me and if I use it, I’ll send you a $25 gift certificate to Schat’s Bakery.
Dick Selzer is a real estate broker who has been in the business for more than 45 years. The opinions expressed here are his and do not necessarily represent his affiliated organizations.
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