Wildfire Preparedness
Preparedness Information
Financial Preparedness
- Contact your insurance provider to make sure your coverage is updated and applicable to wildfires. They may have additional recommendations or requirements beyond those listed here.
Access:
- Make sure your address is clearly visible. Crews should be able to see the address clearly at night and from a distance down the road.
- Numbers should be reflective, and at least four inches high.
- You can order an address sign from Bastrop County (Note: this is not handled by the fire department.)
- Brush should be removed within 12 feet of the driveway.
- Limbs that are less than 13 feet from the ground and overhanging the driveway should be trimmed back or removed.
- Please provide a firm (gravel or paved) surface for fire trucks to turn around.
- Note: A fire truck may be 35 to nearly 40 feet long.
- …
Defensible Space
Zone 0 (0-5 feet from the home)
Zone 1 (5-30 feet from the home)
- “Clean and Green”
- Keep grasses mowed to less than 4 inches high.
- Minimize shrubs and trees. Choose trees and shrubs that have low flammability.
Zone 2 (30-100 feet from the home)
- Reduce vegetation, create space between tree tops
- Remove lower limbs to 6-10 feet above the ground
- Remove shrubs that, if they catch fire, will help ignite the trees.
Zone 3 (100-200 feet and beyond)
- The same rules as Zone 2 (30-100 feet) apply.
- For houses on level ground, this is primarily for firefighter safety.
- For houses on slopes, many will need 200 feet of defensible space or more for protecting the structure, and even more for firefighter survival.
- Sloped ground makes fire travel faster and burn with more intensity.
- …
Preparing the Home Itself
We plan on holding at least two chipping events annually (spring and fall), where people can drop off brush and have it turned into mulch.
Once permanent locations and dates can be established, we will post them here. Until then, chipping events will be posted on our social media pages.
Defensible space considerations for your business are essentially the same as for your home. Be sure to include outside storage areas in your defensible space preparations.
Contact the fire department about installing a rapid access key vault (“Knox Box”) to improve fire department access in the event of a fire or other emergency.
Free Disaster Preparedness Training for Businesses
- Disaster Resilience Workshop for Small Businesses:
- Business Continuity Planning:
- Course Description
- Course Offerings
- Be sure to look for MGT-381-V for the virtual course
- Course start times are based on the host location’s time zone.
- Protecting Your Home or Small Business from Disasters
- Preparedness for Child Care Providers
- Note: For the above courses, you will need to obtain a FEMA SID (student ID) number, if you do not already have one, prior to registering for the class.
Other Resources
Contact us about becoming a recognized “Firewise Community”.
For more information:
- https://tfsweb.tamu.edu/ProtectYourHome/
- https://www.readyforwildfire.org/
- https://smokeybear.com/
- https://www.wildlandfirersg.org/s/are-you-wildfire-ready?language=en_US
- https://disastersafety.org/wildfire/
- Firewise: Before and After the Fire (PDF)
- Note: This was developed by the Austin Fire Department. The preparedness information is applicable to Bastrop, but the contact information is not.
- https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/wildfires/index.html