Fire officials from numerous cooperating agencies gathered on June 11 to demonstrate the aspects of a defensible home in Wrightwood, a mountain community in the San Gabriel Mountains. Members of the community attended the event along with representatives from San Bernardino County Fire Department, CALFIRE, Forest Care and more. Agency representatives answered questions about the County of San Bernardino’s Fire Fuels Reduction Ordinance, State Code and the Ready! Set! Go! Program. A defensible home is one that has the greatest potential for surviving a wildfire. Specifically, defensible space around a home is the required space between a structure and the wildland area that, under normal conditions, creates a sufficient buffer to slow or halt the spread of wildfire to a structure. There will be other demonstration homes in the next few months in the communities of Lake Arrowhead (July 9), Crestline (July 23), Big Bear Lake/City (Aug. 13), Fawnskin (Aug. 27), Mountain Home Village (Sept. 10) and Arrowbear/Green Valley Lake (Oct. 1). Learn more about defensible space in the San Bernardino County Fire Department Ready! Set! Go! plan available at www.sbcfire.org.

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