Keep coniferous trees and shrubs away from your house
FireSmart (and Firewise USA / NFPA in the US) name spruce, pine, fir and cedar as highly flammable and recommend keeping them outside the 10-metre...
FireSmart (and Firewise USA / NFPA in the US) name spruce, pine, fir and cedar as highly flammable and recommend keeping them outside the 10-metre (about 30-foot) zone around your home. The same caution applies to ornamental junipers, mugo pine and arborvitae hedges planted against siding. Their needles, resinous sap and papery bark ignite quickly from a single ember and burn hot enough to break windows or set a wall on fire. Watch for plants with strong-smelling crushed leaves, gummy sap, or fine dry dead material caught in the canopy — those traits all increase flammability. If you already have conifers near the house, you do not necessarily have to remove them, but you should prune branches up at least two metres from the ground, thin the canopy so trees do not touch each other, and clear all needle litter from the base. Replace dense foundation hedges with broadleaf alternatives or non-combustible features like a low rock wall or gravel bed. The goal is not a sterile yard — it is to make sure no continuous line of evergreen fuel runs from the property edge to your siding.
A single ember in a juniper or cedar hedge can burn hot enough to break a window or ignite siding — FireSmart treats spruce, pine, fir and cedar as too flammable to plant within 10 metres of a house.
Source: FireSmart BC — Landscaping Hub
Last reviewed 2026-05-02.
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