Monrovia Fire Department: How To Clear Brush Without Starting a Brush Blaze

From the city manager's weekly report:
Equipment use is a major cause of fires in California.  According to data from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire), equipment use was responsible for over 25% of the fires between 2000 and 2005.
Equipment use, however, is central to creating and maintaining defensible space.  Weed eaters, lawn mowers, trimmers and chain saws are the tools of the trade for clearing and thinning brush.
Brush clearance should be done in the spring.  If it begins too late in the year the live and dead vegetation have both dried out, increasing the risk of starting a fire.  If you start too early on the annual weeds, they will grow again and need repeated treatments.  However, as we have learned from the Madison Fire, wildfires can begin at any time of year.
Defensible space is as critical as ever, but care must be taken in creating it.  It is possible to use power tools safely, but it requires extra diligence.
How can a homeowner do the necessary work without sparking fires?  Here are some basic guidelines for safe power tool use:

• Work while plants still retain some of their early-morning moisture – generally before 10 a.m.
• Do not work in windy conditions.
• Don’t park in dry grass or brush.
• Use lawn mowers for turf only.
• For dry weeds and grass, use weed trimmers or hand tools.
• With string trimmers, use plastic or nylon line only, not any type of metallic material that will be prone to sparks.
• Check in advance for rocks that might spark when hit or thrown by power equipment.
• Use spark arresters on all portable gasoline powered equipment.
• Fuel up away from dry weeds, and, of course, don’t smoke!
• Have a helper at a safe distance acting as a spotter to watch for sparks, smoke or flame.
• Carry water or an appropriate fire extinguisher and make sure you know how – and when – to use it.
• Do not attempt to extinguish a large fire yourself.
• Carry a cell phone to call 911 immediately if there is a fire of any size.
• Consider replacing annual, weedy growth with low-flammability perennial plants that can be effectively pruned and groomed during winter dormancy.

CalFire has a video on safe equipment use in dry brush and fact sheets in both English and Spanish on the subject:
Our wonderful firefighters succeeded in saving all the homes threatened by the Madison Fire – as skilled and dedicated as they are, they could not have accomplished this if not for the defensible space that the residents had provided around their homes.
Make sure to maintain that defensible space to help the firefighters save your home in the event of a wildfire --- but do it safely.  Follow the guidelines above!