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Is Your Property Ready For Wildfires?

Posted on May 3, 2013 | Leave a comment

Wildfires have become common in Southern California, Texas, Colorado and many other states in the past two decades, and they can happen at anytime of the year.

What you can do to get ready.

Simple Changes:

Changing the mesh in the outdoor vents from 1/4″ to 1/8″ making it much harder for burning embers to get trapped inside the vents.
Fill in small gaps underneath the roof tiles with foam or concrete. When the fire comes through, there are thousands of little embers bouncing around and they find even the smallest opening.

More Extensive Changes:

Remove wood from around house.
Replace wood windows. Wood framed windows were framed with wood and if that wood were to burn the panes would pop out allowing the fire easy access into the house.
Encase wood eves with a noncombustible material such as stucco.
Remake the decks, balconies, and walls with similarly fire-resistant matter (like tile or brick). If that is too expensive, fire resistant caulk and paint on wood can help.

If the Fire is Coming:

Sweeping up piles of dead leaves near the home since embers will land in them and ignite.
Move patio furniture far away from the house; even in the pool if possible.
Remove or retract awnings.

For more information go to: http://readysetgooc.org/RSGWeb.html

Disclaimer: For Information and Entertainment Purposes Only

National Fire Prevention Week – Are You Ready?

Posted on September 20, 2011 | 1 comment

October 9 to 15 is officially Nation Fire Prevention Week. A home fire is reported every 87 seconds.

An appraiser when doing an inspection does not do a building inspection but will check for Safety, Security and Soundness. Contact the appraisers at www.socalappraisalserv.com for questions on the 3s or if you have questions regarding a FHA loan inspection.

Here is what you can do to prevent a fire and if worst case scenario evacuate your family if one ignites.

Have a working smoke alarm on each floor. Check and test the batteries every 6 months. If your smoke alarm is more than 10 years old replace it with a model that has photoelectric and ionized sensors.
Keep fire extinguishers handy. Keep fire extinguishers where blazes are more likely to start such as the kitchen and garage. Check expiration dates and get canisters serviced annually.
Check for potential hot spots. Every month, walk inside and outside your home, looking for conditions that could spark a blaze (an overloaded outlet or combustibles leaning against a potential igniter). Check your dryer for lint build-up and clear the filter after each use.
Make an escape plan – and practice.
Create a fire survival kit, and make sure everyone knows where to find it in an emergency.
Reach out to your local fire department. They have experts on staff who will visit your house and look for potential problems, such as building code violations that could be fires waiting to happen.