Defensible Space

Plan Today, Protect Tomorrow

Wildfire risks are rising, and preparation has never been more critical. The OSFM's Defensible Space Program is here to help Oregonians protect their homes and communities through proactive, practical measures.

Scheduling a free defensible space assessment is easy and ensures your property is better protected from the next wildfire season. The assessment is an education-focused visit that gives home and property owners tips to start or improve their defensible space.

Defensible space—a strategically managed area around your home—can be the deciding factor in preventing embers from igniting your property. By acting now, you can help create a fire-adapted community, reducing risks for everyone.

Join the movement to protect Oregon’s homes, lives, and landscapes. Click here to schedule your free assessment and take the first step toward a safer future. Together, we can face the wildfire challenge with resilience. 

Read the draft Oregon Defensible Space Model Code here. To provide comments or questions about the development of the model defensible space code, please use this form.

What is Defensible Space?

Defensible space is the area around your home or business and nearby grass, trees, shrubs, or wildland. Keeping this area mowed and free of overgrown brush and dry material can help your property survive a wildfire. 

Defensible space improves safety for people and firefighters and makes evacuations easier. Embers can travel up to three miles ahead of the main fire and are the biggest reason homes are lost during wildfires.

 

 

Defensible Space Guide

According to the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, embers, or firebrands, cause up to 90% of structural ignitions during wildfires. Flying embers can travel several miles ahead of the wildfire.

When creating defensible space, it is important to think about these embers and how they may ignite things on or near your home or business during a wildfire.

Select a zone below and explore the different things you can do to better protect your home from wildfire.

This is information is from the 2025 Defensible Space Homeowners Guide. To request a printable copy, please email osfm.defensiblespace@osfm.oregon.gov.

Select a Zone to View: --- Select a Zone to View Tips --- The Home (Structure) 0 - 5 Feet (Immediate) 5 Feet and Beyond Additional Resources

The Roof

• Regularly remove leaves, needles, and other debris from the roof and gutters, especially before and during summer months.
• Check your roof at least once a year and keep it maintained. Consider applying treatments to prevent moss from growing on the roof and inside the gutters.
• Pay special attention to areas where materials can gather on the roof, especially under eaves or against walls.
• Covering your gutters with metal covers to keep leaves and needles out. If the gutters are covered, the gutters still need to be checked once a year.

Zone: The Home

Vents & Openings

• To prevent embers from entering your home, it’s recommended 1/8” wire mesh is installed over any vent openings and/or the top of any preexisting wire mesh.
• Exterior attic vents, soffit vents, and areas below decks and patios should be covered.

Zone: The Home

Siding

• Make sure siding and skirting around the building is in good condition.
• Rotting or missing siding and skirting can give flames and embers a place to catch the side of a building on fire. Well-maintained siding, even made of wood, can be fire-resistant if maintained and far from flammable vegetation or material.
• Other Considerations Install noncombustable or ignition-resistant siding like brick, stone, fiber, cement, plaster, or metal.

Zone: The Home

Decks & Patios

• Pay special attention to places and pockets where material can gather against the side of the building.
• Consider using non-flammable patio furniture and/or bring flammable materials inside when not at home or during an evacuation.
• Consider installing 1/8” wire mesh below deck openings.
• Make sure spaces between deck boards are clear of debris, especially during summer.

Zone: The Home

Fences

• Fence attachments touching the structure should be made of a noncombustible alternative like metal.
• Wood and other flammable fences can act like a wick and carry fire from the fence to the side of your building.
• Replace the first five feet from your building with noncombustible material.

Zone: The Home

Under the Eaves & Decks

• Make sure flammable vegetation is removed from directly under the eaves.
• A minimum of five feet from the structure is recommended.

Zone: 0-5 Feet

Mulch

• Remove vegetation and mulch from within five feet of the building.

Zone: 0-5 Feet

Non-Flammable Buffer

• Install a 5-foot non-flammable buffer around the building, using materials like river rock, gravel, paver stones, or concrete.

Zone: 0-5 Feet

Fire-Resistant Plants

• Consider using fire-resistant plants in your landscaping at least five feet away from the home.
• Allow space between each plant so they don’t touch each other. If one plant catches fire, this prevents the flames from transferring to other plants.

Zone: 0-5 Feet

Limb Trees

• For the first 100 feet from buildings, it is recommended to maintain a 10-foot spacing between individual tree crowns and a 10-foot spacing from buildings and powerlines.
• It is recommended to limb trees up six feet (for trees greater than 18 feet tall) or up 1/3 the tree height (for trees less than 18 feet tall).

Zone: 5 Feet+

Plants

• Choose fire-resistant plants. By keeping plants farther away and choosing fire-resistant ones, you create a safer zone around your house. It makes it harder for a fire to reach your home and helps protect it from getting damaged or destroyed during a wildfire.
• Keep grass mowed to less than four inches.

Zone: 5 Feet+

Firewood

• Keep firewood piles and lumber at least 30 feet from any structure or enclose the wood pile in a shed or building.

Zone: 5 Feet+

Propane

• Keep combustible vegetation 10 feet away from permanent propane tanks.
• Do not completely cover or surround the propane tank with anything, like a wall or roof, as this will prevent vented gases from dispersing into the air properly and cause a safety hazard.
• Make sure your empty or partially used BBQ tanks are stored 30 feet from your structure, placed in an outbuilding, or brought to a recycling center.

Zone: 5 Feet+

Driveway

• Make sure any trees or bushes along your driveway are cut back to meet local height and width requirements (typically a height of 13 feet, 6 inches and a width of 20 feet).
• Make sure any bridges or culverts are properly marked with their weight limit. Consider upgrading bridges and culverts for standard emergency vehicle weight limits (75,000 pounds).

Resources

Address

• Ensure address signs are legible from both directions of a road.
• Consider installing reflective signs so they are easier to see at night.
• Ask your local fire agency if they have an address sign program to provide a sign for your property.

Resources

Contacts & Help

• The Oregon State Fire Marshal offers free defensible space assessments. Click here to sign up.

Resources

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Downloadable Infographics

 

View embers graphic in a PNG                         View defensible space graphic in a PNG