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I do not now how many times I have watched people standing outside their home trying to spray a garden hose on the roof to protect it from fire. It seems almost helpless, and you feel for them, but you also feel a sense of ignorance on their behalf. Granted, you cannot stop a fire that is fueled by endless vegetation, both dead on the ground and growing above ground. But maybe we should think about some very simple common sense attributions of our own that we actually help feed the fires with.

Think about it this way. Most of these homes are more then just shacks in the woods. To most of us, they appear to be palaces of sorts. These people obviously have some bucks, they obviously thought of everything when it comes to the creature comforts of making their homes livable. Why on earth would they not invest a tiny fraction of that into things that more then likely would save their home in a wild fire?

If I still lived in one of these wild fire threat zones, I would by now have invested, rather designed and built myself, a roof top sprinkler system. A simple layout of hose or pipe, with adequate sprinkler heads considered throughout the layout of the roof to cover every portion of the exposed rooftop. This could be built easier then an in ground vegetation sprinkler system, which most of these people already have. So what if it looks unseemly to your neighbors. They will not be saying that when their sleeping at your place after the fire consumed theirs. In fact, I would have this system independent of all services. A buried water tank, filled by rainwater or the grey water of the home and a backup generator to operate a pump, which would supply the sprinkler system. This all seems so costly, yet it would cost less then many of the yard ornaments like ponds, etc that we put up in our yards. It is a matter of priority. Like a burglar alarm or CO2 and smoke alarm system. They seem to be a waste of time and money until they are triggered.

Vegetation around the home is another obvious problem. Trees are so nice to have in the yard, but not when they are the primary source of burning down our life long dream home. You could look at this in two ways. If you are a homebody, or someone is always around, then we need to teach that person how to fall a tree in a hurry. Yes, even the wife can do this. It is not a job only capable by huge men with plaid shirts and beards. Even a small person can fall a tree, trim up the branches and drag them away in less then an hour. Secondly,

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