Okay, so you live in Southern California and that means you know all about the dangers of wildfire.

Welcome to that club, but what can you do now?

Hello, I'm Don Butts, the Fire Chief of the Lakeside Fire Protection District, as well as the President for the San Diego County Fire Safe Council.

Before we get to what you can actually do, what is a fire safe council?

The one I belong to is a county-wide organization made up of community members and fire professionals

that focus on first line of defense from wildfires. Education is a key point and sharing with

them the importance of preparing your home, preparing yourselves, and preparing your family.

These fires in California in particular, but we've seen throughout the country,

there's not enough firefighters and fire resources out there to protect every single house when one of these happen.

You add to that some very dangerous fire weather, and everybody needs

to take care of their own safety, and that means getting involved with the Fire Safe Council

and following programs such as Ready Set Go. What's that? There's three steps. Getting ready,

get set, and then go when you need to leave.

That sounds simple enough, but get ready to go because Don has a lot to offer.

Getting ready has a couple phases.

The first phase is defensible space, creating a defensible space around your home.

What we're looking for there is 100 feet of clearance.

There is a zone one, which is 30 feet from your house, which we're removing all combustibles and limiting the combustible vegetation. Now, that includes a lot of things.

There's bark or mulch around the house and any vegetation that's lower than your knee.

It also includes wooden fencing and decks and bird's nests that hang out under the

eaves, patio furniture, big trees next to windows, and of course, firewood. Basically, if you think

it can burn, it needs to be replaced with a non-combustible option or just removed. Here's an example.

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