Protect your home from junipers, the 'green gasoline'

"Will your home survive when the embers arrive" has been the wildfire awareness message this year. Embers landing in flammable vegetation such as junipers often cause ignition of homes even away from actual fires.

The recent David Street apartment fire reminds us that house fires can be caused by an ignition source other than a wildfire, particularly when junipers are near a building. Something such as a cigarette started the apartments on fire with what a witness said was initially only a bit of smoke that erupted as the junipers caught on fire. The fire then rapidly spread through the landscaping on the outside of the home into the interior of the apartment causing $350,000 damage to the structure plus the cost of the damage to the home's contents.

One juniper catching on fire was all it took. There have now been four fires in Carson City this summer that started in junipers next to the residence and ignited the structures.

Junipers and evergreen plants should not be planted next to buildings or within a 30-foot defensible space zone. The risk for ignition and fire spread is too great. These plants contain volatile oils similar to kerosene. This, combined with the abundance of the dry dead material that collects inside a juniper, earns these hot-burning plants the title "green gasoline."

Junipers are inexpensive, easy to grow, drought-tolerant and low maintenance. Sounds like the perfect plant for our arid environment. However, they burn easily, with great heat and intensity; none of which are good characteristics for our fire-prone environment.

Recently someone told me that junipers were expensive to remove. This doesn't have to be the case. Carson City Fire Department has a free dumpster and trailer-delivery and pick-up program for Carson City residents. Call 887-2210 to have a receptacle dropped off at your home. You remove the plants with loppers and fill up the dumpster or trailer with all the junipers, pruned material and other plant debris. They haul it away and there is no dumping fee.

If you want to replace junipers with less fire-prone plants, call me at 887-2252 for a free copy of "Choosing the Right Plants for Northern Nevada's High Fire Hazard Areas."

You also can access the publication on the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Web site: www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/nr/2007/eb0701.pdf.

Another useful fire preparedness Web site is www.livingwithfire.info where you can learn about creating a defensible space, how to make your home less fire-prone and what to take if you are evacuated.

Remember, it is actions you take before a fire that make your home safer when a fire occurs. Be prepared and get rid of junipers next to the house.

• JoAnne Skelly is the Carson City/Storey County Extension educator for University of Nevada Cooperative Extension and may be reached at skellyj@unce.unr

.edu or 887-2252.