FIREWISE:
Helping Your Local Fire Department
Black Forest Village became a Pennsylvania Firewise Community
in the year 2004, and a U.S. Firewise Community in 2005. A part
of living within a Firewise Community is understanding what
you can do to protect yourself, your home and property from
wildfires.
Even if you modify your home’s landscape to incorporate
the most fire-resistant materials and provide appropriate design
into your home’s construction, there is no guarantee that
a wildfire will not threaten your home, business, or cabin.
It is important that your local fire department be able to find
and defend your property.
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Here are some suggestions on how
to modify your property to accommodate your local fire department.
Street Signs and Numbers: If made from combustible
materials, your street signs and numbers can ignite or melt,
leaving the fire department with no ability to locate your home.
It is critical that signs and numbers be noncombustible and
visible from the road.
Black Forest Fire Company has available appropriate signs to
display your 9-1-1 address. Contact any Fire Company personnel.
Cost is $15.00 per sign.
Driveways: Fire trucks and equipment are
quite large and often have difficulty in tight spots. Consequently,
your cabin or home’s drive-way must be large enough to
accommodate the typical sized trucks. Fire experts recommend
a driveway of at least 12 feet wide and 13 feet of vertical
clearance.
Gates: If your home or cabin is gated, it
is very important that the gate opens inward and be wide enough
to accommodate the fire fighting equipment. Experts also recommend
that the gate be at lest 30 feet off of the main road, so that
the equipment can pull off the road to open the gate. If the
gate is locked, the lock should not be so strong that firefighters
cannot break it in an emergency.
The Black Forest Fire Company Booth will contain more Firewise
information at this year’s annual Chili Cook-Off. If you
don’t see this available information, ask for it. |
