HUNTSVILLE — Ready, set, burn.

Now is the time to get rid of debris and clear undergrowth around homes and subdivisions, according to John Hobbs, assistant fire chief for the Huntsville Fire Department.

While the fire season of 2011 urged people to Ready, Set, Go! to prepare for the possibility of wildfires, it's time now to do prescribed burning to clear debris.

“After you clear that defensible space, you have to do something with that debris. Let's burn it,” Hobbs said. “We need to prepare ourselves for another active fire season – which is coming.”

Hobbs said all indications show that the fire season of 2012 could again set records, in spite of the ample rainfall Walker County has received this year.

“We want people to do some control burning on a small scale,” he said. “We're not talking about setting 30 or 40 acres on fire unless you're prepared, follow guidelines and contact the local fire department – we're talking about a small control burn around a subdivision or a home. Now that we're getting moisture, now is the time.”

Huntsville is set to receive more rain this week, but Hobbs said it won't take long for the ground to dry out once it stops.

“We've got another front coming, so you can't burn right now,” he said. “With moderate winds, it's going to dry out those top fuels. You're getting close because within the next 30 days, it's going to green up. People are going to rake their leaves and clean their yards, but we're trying to put a supercharger on it.”

Creating defensible space is one of the touchstones of the Ready, Set, Go! program, which urges homeowners to clear around their homes. Elkins Lake has cleared a fire break along their property lines and several homeowners have obviously taken the program to heart by clearing not only debris, but tree tops.

“People have gotten their act together,” Hobbs said. “Four years ago, some of the subdivisions were terrible. That space gives us room to fight the fire. We're not saying cut all the trees down. You just need to thin it up about 12-feet high. The more defensible space you've got, the safer it is.”

Hobbs said the fire department is working with the Walker County Office of Emergency Management and the Texas Forest Service to get the word out about control burning.  

In March, the South Central Texas Burn Association will meet with the Texas Forest Service to talk about bringing a prescribed burning association to Walker County. Jared Karns, wildland urban interface specialist for the TFS, said these associations are endorsed by the TFS.

“This is a group of landowners who help each other burn their land,” he said. “The Texas Forest Service doesn't have the manpower to help out. As far as liability goes, we can't burn on private land. These associations do it by the book. There's definitely a time to burn and now is the time. It's a good mitigation tool.”



Ready, Set, Go!

The first thing Ready, Set, Go!, teaches is to split your property into two zones. Zone one extends 30 feet out from your home and adjacent buildings and zone two extends 60 to 100 feet beyond those structures. These zones provide your property with “defensible space,” which is the area firefighters could get in to try to save your home.

In zone one, remove dead or dying vegetation, trim tree canopies to keep branches a minimum of 10 feet from structures or other trees, remove leaf litter from yard, roof and rain gutters, relocate wood piles or other combustible materials into zone two, remove combustible material and vegetation from around and under decks, remove or prune vegetation near windows, remove ladder fuel, which is low-level vegetation that allows the fire to spread from the ground to the tree canopy.

In zone two, you can minimize the chance of fire jumping from plant to plant by removing dead material and removing or thinning vegetation. The minimum spacing between vegetation is three times the dimension of the plant. Also, homeowners should remove ladder fuels, cut or mow annual grass down to a maximum height of four inches and trim tree canopies regularly to keep their branches a minimum of 10 feet from other trees.

For more information, visit http://www.iafc.org or call the HFD at (936) 291-3047.