Wood is stacked under the deck. Dead branches litter the area. It s so if a wildfire comes through, it allows the property to survive because the area has been cleared. Creating this defensible space is critically important, the chiefs said, when the geography is working against the homeowner. Sometimes access is difficult because roads are narrow or winding.
Water supply is minimal.
As homes are built in rural areas, often the land slopes, which allows fires to easily spread uphill. Add dry weather to the mix and all the ingredients for disaster are present. Local fire chiefs all have horror stories of what happens when fires break out in these areas. By the time firefighters reached the house, it was beyond saving. Clay, with Animas Fire, said that in the Black Ridge Fire of the late 1980s, a couple of homes in La Posta Canyon couldn t be saved because of poor access and because homeowners had not created a defensible space around the structures.