The first real Santa Ana of the season usually arrives in October. The humidity falls into the single digits, the air turns dry and dusty, and anyone who works the inland side of the county starts getting the same phone calls.
Most homeowners think about brush clearance. Far fewer think about their attic vents, and that's where I'd start this week.
In a wind-driven fire, many homes are lost to embers rather than the flames themselves. Embers ride the wind well ahead of the fire, slip through gable and eave vents, and land on dry insulation and stored boxes in the attic. Plenty of Poway owners remember October 2007, when the Witch Creek Fire pushed into town. A lot of the homes built in the '70s and '80s near the open space off Espola Road and in Green Valley still have their original vent screens. Many of those openings are large enough for an ember to pass through.
The fix is modest. Ember-resistant vents or 1/8-inch metal mesh is a short job for a handyman on most single-story homes. Compare that to a smoke-damaged attic, or to an insurance carrier that declines to renew after an exterior inspection.
Here's what I'd walk this month:
- Every gable and eave vent. Look for screens that are torn, rusted through, or painted over. - Gutters. Pine needles and eucalyptus leaves in a gutter are kindling sitting on your roofline. - The first five feet around the house, where bark mulch, firewood stacked against the garage, and a wood fence attached to the siding all add up. - Anything stored in the attic near a vent.
My years in the Marine Corps and in law enforcement taught me to walk a perimeter before I trust it. A house is no different. In Poway, the exposure changes from one street to the next. A home on a cul-de-sac that backs onto a canyon faces a very different risk than one three blocks in, surrounded by other houses and irrigated lawns.
Here's something some sellers don't love hearing. In these neighborhoods, I'd spend money on vents and clearance before I'd spend it on staging. Buyers ask about fire hardening now, and so do their insurance agents. A clean answer during escrow is worth more than new throw pillows.
If your home backs onto open space and you aren't sure what's behind those vent covers, go look this weekend. All it takes is ten minutes and a flashlight.