Seven Things You Should Know About Fire Mitigation
The factors that most affect the survivability of a structure are the structure itself and the 100 feet around it.
Vacant lots also benefit from mitigation. The trees on your lot are more likely to survive a fire if you have mitigated to lessen fire intensity. Mitigation can make the difference between coming through a wildfire with a damaged, but still wooded lot and being left with a barren moonscape.
It is not necessary to clear-cut around your house to improve its resistance to wildfire. Mitigate to keep flames from direct contact with your house and to keep high radiant heat (burning trees) at a distance of at least thirty feet. You can do this by keeping tree canopies at least ten feet apart and limbing trees up at least ten feet.
More structures are lost to low-intensity (ground) fires than high-intensity (crowning) fires. The embers and ground fires that most often destroy houses are things you can easily mitigate against.
One of the most important things you can do to protect your home is clean your gutters. Look for and remove dead leaf- and needle-litter from wherever it accumulates around your house -- it provides kindling for embers and is instrumental in destroying structures during a wildfire.
There are only two forces that can truly stop or turn aside a large wildfire: a change in the weather and the mitigation of the forest in the fire's path. Your efforts make a difference.
Members of the Crystal Lakes Volunteer Fire Department will be offering property assessments to assist you in making effective fire mitigation decisions on your property. Use the form on the Fire Mitigation page of our website to request one.
Crystal Lakes Fire Protection District is fully committed to providing accessible facilities, elements and
channels of communication to all members of the public. As part of this commitment, Crystal Lakes Fire Protection District
has a policy of providing an accessible website compatible with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) and
commercial screen reading software. All features of the website are coded to allow individuals with vision and
other impairments to understand and use the website to the same degree as someone without disabilities. We welcome
feedback and can often resolve issues in a timely manner if they arise.
If you need any special assistance or accommodations:
Crystal Lakes Fire Protection District has designated a compliance officer for website disability-related accommodations.
The compliance officer has received training in website accessibility and updates the site in accordance with those best
practices. Contact our accessibility officer to report an issue.
Compliance Procedures and Reports
In addition to testing with users with a wide range of disabilities and coding our website to WCAG standards,
Crystal Lakes Fire Protection District regularly scans its website to ensure ongoing compliance, and makes timely
changes to any inaccessible changes, if any are found.
Linked Documents and Third Parties
Please note that this site may link out to third-party websites, such as state or federal agencies, that do
not have accessible content. This site may also include documents provided by third parties included in our
agenda packets, for example. While we cannot control the accessibility of content provided by third parties,
we are happy to assist any member of the public with reading and accessing content on our site.