As the wildfires continue to burn in southern California, we watch and we wait and we wonder. We are disturbed and sad to see the television accounts that include flames, water drops, and those many, many folks who have been evacuated from their homes. And we feel that, in the face of everything, now is the time to remind all of you who live in fire-prone areas how important it is to prepare your home for the possibility that wildfire might strike.

Sometimes it would seem as if there is nothing homeowners can do. However, that is not the case. Each of us CAN participate in our home's survival potential. How? The condition of the 100 to 150 feet of space around a house and its attachments principally determines the potential for it to ignite during a wildfire. A house burns because of its interrelationship with everything in this surrounding area. To avoid a home ignition, you must eliminate a wildfire's potential relationship with your house. This can be accomplished by interrupting the natural path a fire takes---a relatively simple task. Remove flammable items like dead vegetation from the area to prevent flames from contacting the house. Also, reducing the volume of live vegetation will affect the intensity of the wildfire as it enters this particular zone.

I, for one, am going to take a Firewise walk around my house this evening and see if there is anything that needs a little attention.