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Fire-resistant Landscaping Saves So Cal Homes10-30-07 | News

Fire-resistant Landscaping Saves So Cal Homes




The Santiago Fire burned right up to this community under construction near Lake Forest, Calif. in this view taken on Oct. 26. The blackened hill above the street shows how close the flames came before they were stopped by the irrigated defensible space planted with rosemary and dwarf myoporum. The fire?EUR??,,????'?????<
Photo: Guy Nelson

More than a dozen fires charred hundreds of thousands of acres and burned close to 1,700 homes to the ground in Southern California in October. But the toll was limited by defensible space created by landscape architects and contractors, a number of experts said.

Several communities with very strict fire precautions called ?EUR??,,????'?????<

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A number of Southern California communities stood up to walls of flame without the loss of a single structure thanks to the creation of robust defensible space zones. For more on defensible space and fire-resistant plants, visit www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dplu/fire_resistant.html


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In a study released on Oct. 23, the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council looked at fire preparedness of the Love Creek neighborhood in Avery, a typical town in rural California.

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It would cost an average of $4,500 to clear vegetation around a single home, the study noted.

Nursery Survives Fire

Fires raging in California surrounded the perimeter of El Modeno Gardens headquarters in Irvine, but little damage occurred.

All four corners of El Modeno Gardens headquarters, which contain over 90 acres of greenhouses, shadehouses and field production were surrounded by fire, and several structures burned.

Jo-Anne Newton, Vice President of El Modeno Gardens Inc. says considering the circumstances, very little damage occurred.

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Sources: Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union Tribune, with reporting by Annalise Klingbeil

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