From 10 to 30 metres, thin the forest and create spacing
The extended zone covers roughly 10 to 30 metres (about 30 to 100 feet) from your house. FireSmart and Firewise USA treat this as the area where you...
The extended zone covers roughly 10 to 30 metres (about 30 to 100 feet) from your house. FireSmart and Firewise USA treat this as the area where you want to lower fire intensity before it ever reaches the intermediate zone. Selectively remove evergreen trees so that single trees or small clusters have at least three metres of horizontal space between their crowns. Prune lower branches up to two metres above the ground to stop a surface fire from climbing into the canopy and becoming a crown fire. Clean up fallen branches, dry grass and accumulated needles regularly, especially after windstorms. If your property abuts dense forest, work with your neighbours and your local FireSmart coordinator (or Firewise USA community in the US) on shared fuel breaks — wildfire does not stop at a property line. You do not need a barren landscape; many homeowners keep healthy stands of broadleaf trees and ornamental shrubs in this zone. The objective is to remove the continuous evergreen fuel that lets a fire run from the back of the lot to the wall of the house in one unbroken sweep.
Wildfire does not stop at a property line — and a single neighbour’s untended evergreen stand can carry flame across 30 metres of well-FireSmarted yard in minutes.
Source: FireSmart BC — Home Ignition Zone
Last reviewed 2026-05-02.
See live fires, evacuation alerts, air quality, and road closures for Western Canada and 18 western US states on our free live map, then run through the preparedness checklists before fire season.
This is the same wildfire safety library that lives inside our free app. Browse it all in the safety library.