With summer´s heat in the air, wildfires become a threat to all of us.

From rural acreage to crowded suburbs, living anywhere on the edge of our country´s natural beauty can put you and your home at risk for hot, fast-moving wildfires ? a risk that grows steadily as summer moves on and the landscape continues to dry. To minimize that risk, firefighting professionals encourage homeowners to take some simple precautions.

CREATE A NON-COMBUSTIBLE ZONE

One of the most important things you can do to protect your home is to create a non-combustible zone around it, extending out for at least 30 feet in all directions. A non-combustible zone, as the name implies, is a well-planned, well-maintained area that is as free as possible of combustible materials that could support the spread of a wildfire.

This doesn´t mean you need to strip the land of any vegetation and cover it with concrete. Here are a few easy and common-sense suggestions.

-- Use fire-resistant landscaping. Within the 30-foot zone, use fire-resistant landscaping such as lawns, moist ground-cover plantings and low shrubbery.

-- Trim trees. Any trees within the zone should be thinned so that they´re no less than 10 feet apart, which helps prevent the spread of a fire from tree to tree, and dead trees should be removed as well. All remaining trees need to be limbed to a height of at least 6 feet, which helps prevent a ground fire from spreading up into them.

-- Move combustibles. Another important element of the non-combustible zone is to move combustible materials away from the house. This includes firewood, scrap lumber, flammable liquids such as gas cans and propane bottles, and other materials that could potentially feed a fire.

-- Use fire-safe roofing. In a wildfire situation, the single most vulnerable part of your home is the roof. Wind-blown embers landing on a dry wood roof can ignite it in seconds, and spread quickly. Whether you´re building a new home or reroofing your existing one, make use of fire-resistant or fire-treated roofing materials, and consider doing the same with your siding.

MAINTAIN THE ZONE

Once you´ve established your non-combustible zone, you need to maintain it. Keep your lawn watered, and mow it regularly ? a low, moist lawn is extremely difficult to ignite, and offers excellent protection against the spread of a fire. Keep weeds to a minimum, especially in areas without a lot of water where dense weeds can quickly become tinder-dry.

Don´t allow yard debris to accumulate, including grass clippings, tree limbs, plant prunings and other materials that might otherwise pile up near the house and then dry out and become a fire hazard. Consider starting a compost pile, or hauling your yard debris to a landfill for recycling.

Fire-resistant or not, another important task is to keep your roof and gutters free of dead leaves and pine needles. Check the roof regularly during the summer, and remove any accumulation of dry material immediately. Trim overhanging branches to minimize future accumulation (to also to protect the roof in winter storms). And remember that just sweeping it off the roof isn´t enough ? you need to get it outside the zone.

HELP EMERGENCY CREWS

Now take a moment to look at your home from the eye of a firefighter or other emergency crew that needs to get to you.

-- Is your address clearly marked and clearly visible from a distance?

-- Can fire trucks and emergency vehicles easily access your property?

-- Do you have valuable papers and irreplaceable family items like photo albums in a convenient location so as to minimize your time and risk in the event you need to evacuate your home?

-- Do you and your family have an evacuation plan? All family members should know what to do and where to assemble in the event of an evacuation, including rounding up and caring for pets.

It may seem like a remote possibility, but it pays to be prepared. Take a little time this weekend to look around the inside and the outside of your house, and make plans now to turn your home into a safe and fire-resistant zone.