We all now know that fire embers are a secondary starter of fires and they can fly as much as a mile from a wildfire source…starting new fires.
Piles of dry tree limbs and other trimmings, brush, lawn debris, leaves, dry oak blooms, dry cuttings of groundcover and other vegetation are ideal targets for flying embers and other sources of fire…ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE PILED AGAINST A DRY WOODEN FENCE! Do you or your neighbor do this, saying, “I’ll put them in the paper yard sack or yard barrel for City trash pick-up this week.” Then two weeks later, and after three or four reminders from your spouse, you might get it picked up and to the curb? What do you tell your insurance company if that pile becomes a fire, lighting the wooden fence wicking to your house, or your neighbor’s house, inflicting fire damage, or worse, burning the house down? Oops! (Insurance companies love that answer!).
Avoid piling rubbish in your yard and in the green space behind your yard…put it at the curb for city trash on your regular day or on big brush pickup days. If your neighbor is bad about gathering and leaving piles of debris across the fence, become his very best friend; either get permission from him to carry his mess to the curb for him, or better yet, get HIM to carry his own mess to the curb by explaining the very real threat of embers!