Wildland Fires

Knowing how wildland fires spread can help you manage your property in a way that can help mitigate damage if a wildland fire occurs on, or near, your property.

 Embers and sparks

Wildland fire can spread quickly in forests where trees are close together - fire spreads directly from tree to tree, and can produce embers that can travel several kilometres. These embers may land on trees, tall vegetation, or homes well ahead of the original fire and create many more fires. An overwhelming percentage of the damage or destruction to homes by wildland fires are a result of embers and sparks!

Make sure that you keep the area around your home free of small, easily combustible fuel such as pine needles and bark mulch. 

Small embers and sparks can also gain entry into your home through cracks, open soffits or fascia, and vents. Make sure you maintain the envelope of your home to prevent the entry of sparks and embers. 

 Extreme heat

Radiant heat from a wildland fire can melt vinyl siding, ignite your home, and even break windows. Extreme heat can come from flames within 30 m of your home.

Remove large fuel sources close to the home that may ignite and radiate heat toward the home; large sources of fuel might include nearby coniferous trees, woodpiles, and recreational vehicles.

 Direct flame

As wildland fires spread toward homes, they ignite other flammable objects in their path. To stop wildland fire from directly affecting your home, create breaks in the fire's path.

The topography of your property may affect how fire moves through it; for example, fire moves fastest when spreading uphill: the steeper the slope, the faster a wildland fire will spread up the hill. Homes on hills, or at the top of hills, face the greatest risk from wildland fire. If your home is located on a hill, consider taking extra measures, like removing trees, shrubs, and tall vegetation on the slope(s) and planting fire resistant plants instead.

How you mitigate your property against wildland fire will depend on a few things including structures, vegetation, and topography of your property. For FireSmart purposes, properties are split up into zones:

• The Immediate Zone - which includes any structure and the area immediately around it, you want to keep this area non-combustible
• The Intermediate Zone - which is managed to not transmit fire to your home
• The Extended Zone - which is managed, when possible, to reduce a fire's intensity

Keep reading below or visit the Home Ignition Zone Self Assessment Guide for more information:

Up to 90% of homes destroyed by wildland fire ignite due to embers. Embers can travel many kilometers ahead of a wildland fire, starting more fires when they land on easily combustible materials, like dried leaves in gutters.

Leave nothing for embers to ignite by regularly cleaning and maintaining any areas of your home or yard where needles, leaves, and debris build up, including eavestroughs and under decks.

Keep sparks and embers out of your home by keeping your home in good repair by undertaking tasks such as  sealing cracks, using fine mesh over vents, and ensuring your eaves are closed up. 

If you are upgrading elements of your home, such as doors, windows, siding, or the roof, consider using materials that will protect your home in the event of a fire; such as, double pane glass, fire rated doors, and ignition resistant siding. 

Check out the FireSmart Immediate Zone poster!

This should be a fire-resistant area, free of all materials that could easily ignite, or create a path for fire to get to your home.

Landscaping should be done with fire mitigation in mind:

• Choose fire-resistant plants that have supple leaves and water-like sap, keep grass 10 cm or shorter, and remove debris regularly
• Avoid using highly flammable plants such as coniferous trees or tall grasses
• Use fire-resistant material (like stones) for ground cover and avoid using flammable mulches, like bark or wood chips

Check out the FireSmart Intermediate Zone poster!

Create space between trees and vegetation. Thinning and pruning are effective mitigation measures, since these actions will reduce the intensity of a wildland fire by creating breaks in the fuel supply.

Regularly remove fallen branches, dry leaves, and pine needles to eliminate surface fuels.

Relocate combustibles (such as firewood) to this zone, instead of keeping them in the immediate and intermediate zones.

Check out the FireSmart Extended Zone poster!

FireSmart yard maintenance and landscaping is a vital part of protecting your property. Consult the FireSmart Guide to Landscaping for plant selection tips. 

 Immediate zone landscaping

The landscaping elements in this zone prevent embers and sparks from igniting fires immediately next to, or on, your home.

• A 1.5 m area around the house (and any other structures on your property) should be free of combustible material such as bark mulches, coniferous trees, tall grasses, and wood décor.
• Choose non-combustible material such as gravel, stone, brick, concrete, and bare earth in this zone.
• Woody shrubs, trees, or tree branches should be avoided in this zone. Don't forget to look up! Tree branches that extend over the roof can bring fire over your home. 
• Regularly remove fine debris - check eavestroughs, inside corners, under decks and RVs, and along fence lines.

 Intermediate zone landscaping

The landscaping elements in this zone are managed so that they don’t transmit fire to your home, and to decrease the intensity of a fire.

• Grass should be maintained at a maximum height of 10 cm.
• Choose a non-combustible mulch such as gravel.
• Clean up fine debris in both the immediate and intermediate zones.
• Plant low-density, fire-resistant plants, shrubs and trees in this zone. Avoid creating continuous paths of combustible gardens and trees that could directly transmit fire to your home.
• Characteristics of fire resistant plants include:
  • moist, supple leaves
  • water-like sap with little odour
  • low amounts of sap or resin material
  • accumulate minimal dead vegetation
• Characteristics of highly flammable plants include:
  • leaves or needs are aromatic
  • contain resins and oils
  • loose papery bark
  • accumulate fine, dry, dead vegetation
  • examples to avoid include cedar, juniper, pine, spruce, and tall grasses
• Remove the lower 2 m of branches on trees and space trees so that they are no closer than 3 m when mature - this might mean planting further apart, pruning branches, or removing whole trees.
• Avoid planting combustible shrubs under coniferous trees. Just like low hanging branches, combustible shrubs will allow a ground fire to climb up into the tree canopy, where it is harder to control.

 Extended zone landscaping

The goal of this zone is to diminish the intensity of a wildland fire.

• Prune and remove trees as described for the Intermediate Zone: remove the lower 2 m of branches on trees, and consider spacing trees so that they are no closer than 3 m when mature.
• Clean up and dispose of any combustibles such as fine and woody debris from the ground.

Fire apparatus (like pumper and tanker trucks) tend to be much larger than passenger vehicles and need more space to get around corners and turn around. Keep the trees and shrubs along your driveway trimmed back so that larger vehicles can get through in the event of an emergency. 

All homes in the Township should have a green 911 sign at the end of the driveway or at the access point for water-access-only properties on the lake. Please take the time to ensure they are secure and clearly visible since they are a primary means of finding you in an emergency. 

FireSmart landscaping information is also available from the government of Ontario's webpage: FireSmart landscaping.

Many wildland fires are started by natural events such as lightning strikes, but human activity can also start a wildland fire. 

 Prevent accidental fires

 To avoid accidentally causing a wildland fire, follow these tips:

• Check the wildland fire danger level on the Burn Permit website before starting a fire. Prepare for how you will control and extinguish your fire before starting it! 
• Keep fires contained: surround your fire with non-combustible material such as stone or metal fire rings, and a 3m non-combustible buffer zone around the fire, such as bare earth or stones (remove material like dry leaves and wood out of this buffer zone) 
• Use a heavy-duty 6mm (or finer) mesh on top of burn barrels, and maintain the 3m non-combustible buffer zone around burn barrels
• Have a competent adult stay with the fire at all times
• Have tools ready to extinguish the fire if it gets too big or spreads
• Vehicle exhausts can get hot enough to ignite tall vegetation that touches the exhaust. Park vehicles on non-combustible surfaces such as bare earth, rock, or grass trimmed shorter than 10cm. Never park on long grass.
• Complete welding projects on non-combustible surfaces
• Extinguish cigarette butts in a non-combustible ashtray or container of sand
• Do not dump fire place ashes out until they are completely cool. Hot ashes from the centre of an ash bucket can ignite combustibles that they land on, and they can be carried by the wind to ignite combustibles away from where the ash was dumped.  

Extinguish your fires

• Always extinguish your fire completely if you cannot stay with it. A smoldering fire can re-ignite and escape.
• When extinguishing a fire, make sure hot coals deep within the fire have been extinguished. A great way to do this is to add water until the ashes and left over coals from a soupy mixture. 
• Tools to extinguish a small fire include shovels, rakes, garden hoses, and sprinklers. For larger fires, an appropriate tool might include an excavator.
• Fires must be supervised and extinguished by a competent adult.

 Campfires and burn barrels

Campfires and burn barrels have been known to re-ignite hours after the fire was thought to be extinguished. Once re-ignited and unsupervised a fire can spread on dry tinder around the campfire ring or burn barrel and make its way into fields or forests. 

Campfires and burn barrels must be at least 3 m away from property lines, overhead wires, and structure like your home or shop.

Remove anything combustible around the campfire or burn barrel, which includes the removal of  dry leaves, brush piles, or long grass within 3 m of the fire. Ideally, the 3 m surrounding the fire will be made up of bare dirt, bricks, or stones.

 Burn Permits

Burn permits are required for all open-air fires in the Township, including burn barrels and campfires. Permits can be purchased online at dourodummer.burnpermits.com or by contacting the Douro-Dummer municipal office.

• To burn on private property, property owners must obtain a burn permit for their property. The property owner must provide written authorization for a tenant, or other agent (such as a landscaping contractor), to obtain a permit on the property owner's behalf. 
• Agricultural permits are available to farmers that operate on, and require permits for, multiple properties. Agricultural permits cannot be completed online, please contact us for an agricultural burn permits.
• Permits must be activated before every fire:
  • Activate the permit by calling 1-844-971-1122 or by signing into your account online. During the activation process you will be informed of the current fire risk, and the measures you need in place to minimize the risk of fire spread in the current conditions. If there is a burn ban on, the message you receive when you try to activate your permit will let you know - don't burn that day! 
• All permits expire December 31 of the year they are purchased
  • Permits for the following year are available starting the week before Christmas

 For more information on burn permits please visit our Burn Permit information page or the Burn Permit website.