COLORADO SPRINGS — The weather in Southern Colorado is warming up, meaning it's time for homeowners to be proactive and improve their home's chances of surviving a wildfire.
The Colorado Springs Fire Department is there to help, offering a free on-site consultation service, where they will come walk around your home and assess any risks they see, especially those related to vegetation. Some of the best tips homeowners can practice are actually quite simple. Those include keeping the gutters clean, cutting native grasses to less than four inches tall, making sure tree branches are pruned away from the roof, and making sure firewood is at least 15 feet away from the home. Also, if there are trees on your property that are dead, it may be time to cut them down.
To schedule an on-site consultation, call (719)385-7342.
If you are renting the home, it's important to get permission from the owner before pruning or cutting down a tree.
What homeowners do now can help reduce the risk of wildfires spreading, which also protects the community as a whole. "Take a few minutes, because the work that you're doing today, may help protect that firefighter, may protect your neighbor's home, and it may protect your entire block as we experienced that in Waldo Canyon in 2012," said the Program Administrator of the Wildfire Mitigation Section for the Colorado Springs Fire Department, Jeremy Taylor.
The Colorado Springs Fire Department also has a free service where they will collect any tree branches or vegetation placed on the curb for certain neighborhoods. However, you must sign up online to get the service. CLICK HERE to sign up for their Neighborhood Chipping Program, which works with over 100 neighborhoods.
