How to keep your home safe from Arizona wildfires

SCOTTSDALE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — A Scottsdale homeowner can breathe easy after the flames from the Diamond Fire this week only brushed up against his property line and did not reach his home. “It was a huge sigh of relief but again we always prepare for this,” said Mike Sleppy, who lives near where the wildfire broke out.

Living in the rural area north of Scottsdale, Sleppy said preparing for disasters like this is important. He said he always made sure anything burnable like brush, weeds or logs are kept a good distance away from his home. “We don’t have anything near our property line because of things like this fire. We always thought it might happen,” said Sleppy.

According to the Scottsdale Fire Department, this is called creating a “defensible space,” and if you live in the city, they can help you create one as well. “We will go out and give you a threat assessment to your community and we will work with your community,” said Scottsdale Fire Captian Dave Folio.

Some of the things they look for is keeping those burnable items mentioned earlier about 15 feet away from your home. When it comes to trees, firefighters recommend cutting all the branches 3 feet from the base. This prevents a tree from catching during a wildfire.

Creating these defensible spaces can also help fire crews while they battle these fires. “If we can get to a house where there is a defensible space, we don’t have to commit a lot of resources or that house we can then go then go to the next house,” Folio said.

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