These precautions clearly saved this house from the flames that consumed so many other properties in this area. That's why the Bradbury home and others were featured on our show. We hope it will inspire others to learn to protect their homes. Extension and State Forestry have worked together for at least 15 years to teach homeowners in Los Alamos landscaping and gardening techniques to protect against fire. As a result, some 200 to 300 families in the area have adopted fire-resistant landscaping, Valdez said.
Defensive landscaping requires thinning trees on properties in fire-endangered zones.
Valdez and other horticulturists advise homeowners to cut down enough trees to leave a minimum of 10 to 12 feet between plants. Trees left standing should be at least 30 feet from the house. Howard Cady, the current Bradbury House owner, had thinned surrounding trees to 50 to 60 per acre, creating open spaces around the house. In contrast, the nearby forest contained about 1,000 trees per acre when the Los Alamos fire spread. Because of the space created around the Bradbury House, the fire simply consumed ground debris on the property, rather than the trees, said George Duda, an urban forester with the State Forestry Division.