Oregon homeowners must fireproof property

BEND, Ore. — Deschutes County is poised to become the first county in the state to implement a new law requiring property owners to secure their homes against wildfires, if they live in fire-prone areas.

State and county officials are expected to approve a map Monday categorizing the wildfire risk for homes within the so-called wildland-urban interface or developed areas adjacent to forests in Deschutes County.

The certification program is the result of a law passed by the Oregon Legislature in 1997, and intended to protect the urban interface from wildfire and reduce the rising costs of fire suppression.

A five-person committee of foresters, firefighters and landowners spent the last year-and-a-half identifying the county’s interface properties, and assigning one of three categories of fire risk to each.

Throughout the process of developing these boundaries, landowners in the proposed interface areas have been notified and offered opportunities to comment on their designations, said Tom Andrade, interface coordinator for the Oregon Department of Forestry.

Department staff have received very few complaints from homeowners, Andrade told the Bulletin newspaper.

“We’re getting a tremendous response from the public,” he said. “People aren’t calling asking ‘why?’ They’re calling asking ‘what do we need to do?”’

Once the designations are official, landowners will soon receive booklets explaining what risk their homes face and how to make their homes more resistant to wildfire, Andrade said. Homeowners will have two years from the time they receive the materials to make sure their properties comply with wildfire-safety recommendations.

Once a property meets the standards, the homeowner should sign a certificate of compliance — a postcard printed with a short, personalized checklist — and return it to ODF, Andrade said.

Homeowners who fail to comply with the program will not incur any penalties unless a wildfire begins on their property.