How well-prepared is your home for a fire? San Diego FD inspects homes North Park

How well-prepared is your house for a fire? It’s a question homeowners, especially in California, need to ask themselves more often.

“We have to learn to live with wildfire,” Alex Kane, an Assistant Fire Marshal with the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, told NBC 7.

On Wednesday, Kane led a group of 25 firefighters through home inspections in North Park. It was all part of a class, led by Kane and created by the California State Fire Marshal, focused on teaching the roles and responsibilities of a Home Ignition Zone/Defensible Space Inspector.

“So, what they’ve found through science and research is that homes burn during wildfires from small embers,” Kane explained. He added that the issue with embers is flammable material within the home ignition zone, meaning the area that is zero to five feet around a house.

Kane told NBC 7 that he completed the same class in Santa Barbara, and this new understanding of embers was surprising, even to him as a 20-year veteran with the fire service.

“Most people think it’s a wall of fire that comes and just levels everything, but that's not what the science is showing,” he said. “It’s vegetation or mulch up against the house that starts to burn and then that fire now migrates into the house and ultimately the house burns down.”

It is a reality that no one wants to experience, so neighbors in North Park reached out to San Diego Fire-Rescue and coordinated the visit.

“We had an opportunity to connect with the neighborhood here in San Diego and they graciously allowed us to come do inspections on their homes,” Kane said. He added it was beneficial for not only the residents, but for the class because everyone in the course needed to complete an inspection to pass.

For now, this was a one-time experience for residents to be visited by the inspectors-in-training, but Lynn Neagley, who has lived in the area for 10 years, said it was extremely beneficial.

“I think because, like so many people I think that live near downtown, I've made the assumption that wildfire problems and dangers are East County and not here,” Neagley said.

She explained that before speaking with Kane and his colleagues, she was not concerned about being impacted by a wildfire, but she is now grateful that she knows what precautionary steps she can take.

“You know, we all want to protect our homes, obviously, and our community,” she said. “It’s been a great education.”

26 homes were visited by the fire inspectors-in-training.

Some of the tips they shared with homeowners are:

• Look for tree littler (dead leaves, etc.) and consistently rake the dry material away.
• Cut plants and trees six inches off of the ground to prevent fire from climbing them.
• If you have storage in your yard or a shed, move it out of the zero-to-five-feet zone.
• Cover any attic or crawl space vents with an 1/8-inch screen to prevent embers from getting in your home.
• Use non-flammable material for landscaping in your yard, like rock or gravel.
• Space plants apart from each other, and away from your home.
• Be cautious of wooden fences or gates that touch the side of your house, replace them with another material like steel, if possible.

“What we’re looking for is low cost, high impact,” Kane said. “It should be encouraging because it's the simple things that give your house a chance of survivability during a wildfire.”

What to Do to Prepare For a Wildfire Evacuation in California
The best way to prepare for a wildfire is to plan ahead. Tailor this plan to your household's needs and make sure all family members are familiar with its details. Click here to see what your plan should include.