by Mary Pope-Handy | Sep 1, 2021 | Fire
Defensible space, combined with home fire hardening, can increase the odds of your house or home surviving a fire that comes onto your property. In Los Gatos, a large portion of our town, and neighboring unincorporated communities, falls under areas where homeowners are required to mitigate the wildfire risk by reducing fuel and taking other actions. We’ll look at where those areas are and what homeowners in them are required to do.
1 – Mandatory defensible space areas
Is your property in a mandatory defensible space zone? In Los Gatos, there are two listed types under this umbrella:
You can see if your Los Gatos home is in either of these zones by checking the town’s online map, a smaller version of which is below. Areas in red require defensible space criteria to be met and are in one area or the other.
Click on image to view map on the town’s website – Los Gatos. Mandatory defensible space zones for fire risk mitigation are in red.
As you can see, many Los Gatos neighborhoods fall into this zone, including much of the Civic Center area, Vista del Monte, Glenridge, and many more.
What about unincorporated areas, or Monte Sereno?
The town’s map is fairly busy and does not cover the unincorporated areas, or Monte Sereno. An easier one to zoom in on, and which is agnostic toward town boundaries, is on the Cal Fire site, but you will need to zoom quite a few times to see your area. I find this one much easier to read.
2 – What do you need to do to create defensible space in the high fire risk zones?
Laws regulating what must be done (and what can be done, in the case of additions and new construction) in the higher risk fire areas come from both the town and the state. Both of them aim to get residents to remove fuel, such as dead leaves, needles, plants, firewood, and so on are a major step. Thinning brush out, or thinning lower tree branches so that it’s harder for fire to spread is also key. Spacing trees and bushes away from each other, and especially from the house and chimney of homes in the high fire risk zones is crucial, too. Read on to get lists of what to clear out if your property is in these areas with increased fire risk. (more…)
by Clair Handy | Sep 16, 2020 | Events, Fire, Home improvement, Los Gatos Events, Safety
The Los Gatos Library will host an online class, Landscaping for Wildfire Protection
Coming up Thursday, September 24th from 6-7pm Pacific.
Does your garden fight fires? With fire season growing longer and fiercer each year with devastating losses, you might be wondering what you can do to lower risks and protect your property against wildfires. Especially if you live near one of the Bay Area’s beautiful greenspaces! Join the Los Gatos Library with speaker Barbara Hunt, UC Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County, to learn about how wildfires spread and how to landscape to protect your home, from hardscapes to fire-resistant plants. This is a free lecture aimed at California homeowners but open to all.
For more information and the Zoom link, please view the event page.
Join the event on Facebook and set a reminder.
Want to learn more about fire in Los Gatos? Check out some of my other posts on this topic:
Los Gatos Fire Risk
Wildfire Evacuation Route Signs Being Installed (2016)
Fighting Fire With … Wine
A History of Los Gatos Fires and the Los Gatos Fire Department
by Mary Pope-Handy | Aug 24, 2020 | Maps of Los Gatos, Fire
A combined fire map with evacuation zones is now available! As the various fire complexes engulf the San Francisco Bay Area, the Monterey Bay Area, and much of the state, it’s been challenging to see regional maps since Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties were using Garmin Maps and Santa Clara and other counties were using Google map. Yesterday I found a new combined fire map with the evacuation zones published on Garmin and am happy to share that link with you here.
There are disclaimers, of course, as you log into the site. Because it is collecting info from several counties, that info may not be as updated as from the county in question. The CZU fire, though, now has warning zones in Santa Clara County (from the heights of Montebello Road in Cupertino down to Redwood Estates in Los Gatos), so creating a map that would include Santa Clara County makes sense.
For me, this is far more helpful than a list of roads and directions such as “east of xyz road” etc. It appears to be updated frequently
by Mary Pope-Handy | Aug 23, 2020 | About Los Gatos, Fire
What is the Los Gatos fire risk? This morning a good friend of mine shared a map app that is very helpful for understanding any California property’s wildfire odds. Buildings are given a color code from blue (for low risk) to dark red (for very high risk). With the fires raging in the Diablo range on the east side (from about Fremont to Gilroy), the Santa Cruz Mountains, and many other areas of the Golden State, some folks are getting nervous – even if their particular property is not close to the infernos or in a particularly dangerous location.
If you do live in the Los Gatos or Santa Cruz Mountains, you do know that the chances of fire are elevated over more densely populated areas. If your home is close to the hills or large open space that stretches into the foothills, it’s not a surprise that your risk is increased over those in the flat lands. What is your Los Gatos fire risk? Have a look at the DefensibleApp website and see what it says about your California location.
by Mary Pope-Handy | Jul 13, 2016 | Fire, LG Lifestyle, Los Gatos Government, Los Gatos Mountains Real Estate, Safety
The Town of Los Gatos takes its responsibility for minimizing risk from flood, fire, earthquake, or other disasters seriously. A few months ago, I began to notice “Flood evacuation route” signs. First I noticed it along Blossom Hill Road, close to the Highway 17 over crossing, and later on Lark Avenue. (Lexington Reservoir is located further down the highway and a break in the dam would bring tons of water screaming down the highway 17 corridor.) Seemed like a wise idea, given that we have that and also Vasona Lake right here.
Additionally, though, last week I saw a “Wildfire Evacuation Route” sign too. It was located on Prospect Avenue and Kimble Avenue, across from the new Sorellas housing development which is currently under construction by Summerhill (formerly the Holy Names Sisters convent and Casa Maria Montessori School).
If you live in a woodsy or mountainous area, the odds are good that your property is located in a zone earmarked as high risk for wildfires, and you’ve been notified that brush must be cleared 100 feet away from your house or structure annually to create “defensible space”. (Some of the best Los Gatos real estate can be found in those areas!) What isn’t always so apparent is where to go in the case of a wildfire. These new signs should help to improve safety in case of a serious fire.
You may not know that the town has some helpful resources online, too. You can find them here:
http://www.losgatosca.gov/1359/Fire-Safety-and-Wildfire-Preparedness
CalFire flier on creating 100′ of defensible space around your home (pdf)
Other helpful info:
Flood evacuation information on the town’s website
72-Hour Emergency Preparedness Kit Checklist (pdf)
“Los Gatos Prepared” revised
Statement of purpose on the Los Gatos Prepared page:
Empowering Community Self-Sufficiency towards the ultimate goal of every resident and business in Los Gatos having the awareness, skills, and resources necessary to be self-sufficient in the event of an earthquake, fire, flood, or possible flu pandemic
