Wildfire Risk: What’s around your home matters

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — With drought conditions fueling brush fires across Florida, protecting your home may come down to something simple: what’s sitting right outside your front door.

After digging into guidance from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and speaking with the Florida Forest Service, one thing is clear: most homes don’t burn from direct flames.

Wildfires don’t always destroy homes by sweeping through neighborhoods. Instead, embers can travel up to a mile under the right conditions. When they land on or near a home, they can ignite dry materials like:

• Leaves and pine needles on roofs
• Debris in gutters
• Mulch, brush, or dry grass near walls

“A lot of people think it’s the big fire coming through,” said Patrick Mahoney, a wildfire mitigation specialist with the Florida Forest Service. “But it’s those little places you’ve got to look for, where an ember can land and sit there and start that fire.”

“Give that house, give those memories that you have in that house… give them a fighting chance,” Mahoney said.

That “fighting chance” starts with reducing what can burn. Fire experts call this space around your home defensible space.

According to the Florida Department of Agriculture, the most critical zone is within 30 feet of your home. That’s where small changes can have the biggest impact. This area is part of what’s known as the home ignition zone, the space that often determines whether a home catches fire during a wildfire.

Mahoney says protecting your home doesn’t mean clearing everything; it means managing what’s closest to it.

“A lot of the homes we see… they’ve got leaf litter on the roof, in the gutters,” Mahoney said. “That’s one thing we really want to drive home, especially in areas with pine trees.”

“If you look at a pine needle, what does it look like?” he added. “It looks like a match, and it burns just like a match.”

Experts recommend removing leaves, pine needles and debris regularly, especially during dry conditions, since those areas are among the most vulnerable.

They also suggest avoiding flammable materials like pine straw or wood mulch close to walls, keeping firewood and dense shrubs away from the structure, and replacing highly flammable plants with safer options when possible.

Defensible space isn’t just about prevention; it also gives crews room to work.

“The protection starts with the homeowner first,” Mahoney said. “Then we can come in and help protect that structure.”

Many of the biggest risk factors are preventable. Taking simple steps now, before a fire starts, can make a critical difference.