TGO Firewise Brochure

The Great Outdoors Guide to Preparing for Wildfire

Credits

This guidebook has been developed by the TGO Firewise Advisory Committee. This committee is made up of TGO resident volunteers and reports to the TGO Board of Directors. Local organizations that act in an advisory role include: Brevard County Fire Rescue Department, Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, City of Titusville Fire-Rescue, Florida Forestry, and the St. Johns River Water Management District.

These organizations provide education and policy actions that help protect TGO from wildfire threats such as participating in TGO emergency drills, providing guest speakers, and operating prescribed burns.

Firewise Communities USA, is a voluntary National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) program to help neighbors in preparing and protecting their homes against the threat of wildfire. TGO is one of 1,500 recognized Firewise USA® communities from across the nation.

Overview

Fire is a natural part of most of our Florida ecosystems. It can maintain healthy natural environs or turn homes to ashes. There are wildfires every year, especially during our “dry” winter season.

TGO is built within a Wildland / Urban Interface; the area where the edge of a community transitions or abuts into woodlands or grass prairie. In TGO we border both woodlands and grassland and often have large thunderstorms that can ignite those ecosystems.

Many wildland / urban interface homes are lost because of fires associated with the most vulnerable parts of a home, the roof and the area immediately surrounding the structure. Fire embers landing on or around the home or slow-moving fires contacting flammable portions of the structure are the two principle causes of a home being lost.

People who live within this potentially dangerous interface need to take precautions to protect their homes and RVs from fire. Since some preventative measures are too expensive or structurally unfeasible, we will focus on what we can do to minimize this serious threat to our community.

This guide has been designed to serve our community as a resource for what we can do specifically for Preparation, Planning, and Evacuation in a worst-case scenario.

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Preparation There is not much that can be done about a home’s exterior construction without exorbitant costs, but a few simple actions may help save your structure.

• Clean the roof and gutters on your home or RV. Dried leaves and pine needles are perfect materials to catch on fire quickly.

• Clean out flammable materials underneath your deck and RV. • Make sure there is no vegetation touching any structures.

• Consider your out building construction type and what is stored in it. Think of combustibles inside that once ignited will make the fire go from small to explosive. LP tanks, gasoline, lawn chemicals, or fertilizers are all potential significant fire hazards.

• Have your house number easily visible from the street so that emergency services can find you both during the day and night.

• Keep 50-100 feet of hose readily available at a faucet away from the structure.

• Have tools such as a shovel, rake, handsaw, bucket, and fire extinguisher easily accessible.

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Your Landscaping: Lean, Clean, and Green

The goal of Firewise landscaping is to create and maintain a minimum of a 30-foot safety zone around the home or RV. This “defensible space” safety zone increases the likelihood that a home or RV will survive a wildfire, even in the absence of firefighters.

NOTE: You must have written permission from the Architectural Review Board to remove any living shrubs or trees beyond your property line. Contact CSA with any questions before making landscape changes or a Firewise Committee member for additional help.

This 30-foot defensible space does not need to be devoid of shrubs and trees, but should be wisely landscaped with plants known to be less flammable, separated by walkways and grassed areas.

The defensible space breaks up the continuity of any vegetation that might otherwise bring fire from adjacent wildlands to the structure. This space also provides room for firefighters to safely work to defend a structure.

• Defensible space should extend 30 feet outward from the home or RV. • Remove any “ladder fuels”. Ladder fuels are vines and shrubs that can carry a ground fire up into the treetops.

• Remove downed branches, dead palm fronds, and pine needles to the curb for CSA pickup.

• Prune tree limbs so the lowest branches are more than 6 to 10 feet from the ground.

• Remove large groupings of highly flammable plants especially if the plants are close to the home or RV, adjacent to decks or porches, or under eaves or overhangs. See the tables on the next page for comparisons of plant flammability.

• Use lava stone or coarse gravel around any shrubbery next to the structure instead of flammable mulch like bark or wood chips.

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Less-Flammable Shrubs Agave* Aloe* Anise* Azalea* Beauty Berry* Camellia

Century Plant* Coontie* Hydrangea Indian Hawthorne Oakleaf Hydrangea* Oleander

Philodendron Pittosporum Pyracantha Red Yucca* Viburnum*

Less-Flammable Trees Ash* Basswood* Black Cherry* Blue Beech* Catalpa* Citrus Crepe Myrtle Dogwood* Elm* Green Button* Gumbo-Limbo* Hawthorne* Hophornbeam* Jacaranda Loquat

Magnolia* Mahogany* Maple* Oaks* Alexander Palm King Sago Palm Pindo Palm Queen Palm Pygmy Date Palm Sago Palm Peach Pecan* Persimmon* Pigeon Plum* Plum*

Red Bay* Red Mulberry* Redbud* River Birch* Satin Leaf* Sea Grape* Silver button* Sparkleberry Sweet Gum* Sweet Acacia* Sycamore* Tabebuia Viburnum* Willow* Winged Elm*

More-Flammable Trees And Shrubs American Holly* Arborvitae Arizona Cypress Bald Cypress* Boxwood* Cabbage Palm*

Gallberry* Italian Cypress Juniper* Leyland Cypress Melaleuca Pampas Grass

*Florida natives that require less care once established - five -

Pines* Red Cedar* Saw Palmetto* Wax Myrtle* Yaupon Holly* Yew

Planning

Have an evacuation bag or box of your most important items ready to “grab and go.” Consider including cash, copies of important documents, financial account list, phone charger cords, phone numbers (if your phone fails), medications, basic first aid kit, flashlight, drinking water, food, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, pet carrier/leash/food, and any easily transported irreplaceable family mementos.

Test yourself, you have just received the notice that you have 15 minutes to leave… What do you take and how fast can you assemble those items?

Also, perform an annual review of your insurance.

Evacuation In the event, despite our efforts to contain a wildfire, there may come a time when we must evacuate a portion or all of TGO. Brevard County Law enforcement will make that decision and mandate how and when the evacuation will take place.

Due to our narrow, winding roads and significant number of residents, any evacuation from TGO will be challenging. In addition, our main two-lane road in and out of TGO may not be available to us for evacuation due to the arrival of emergency personnel and their equipment.

TGO’s designated Emergency Exit is via the Blue Heron Water Reclamation Facility (see map next page). This exit will NOT support heavy or long vehicles.

Do not plan to use your RV as an evacuation vehicle.

Look at the map and follow the arrows for your evacuation route unless otherwise directed by emergency personnel.

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If you have not seen this Firewise video about safe-guarding TGO, please make sure you do. This is a professionally produced video that explains the importance of practicing the common sense basics of Firewise within our community.

It is available via YouTube, or the TGOCSA.org website. Here is the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTm0Mf1Dsao

Additional Information and Resources Reducing Wildfire Risks at TGO NFPA Firewise NFPA’s Improve your home’s wildfire safety in 60 minutes: caring for the plants you value “TGO Firewise” page on Facebook Florida Division of Emergency Management

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