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Protecting Agricultural Structures

If your property or operation has old wooden buildings or buildings with many openings, these buildings are more vulnerable to wildfire.  Hardening a structure means improving building components, such as roofs, gutters, and vents to reduce exposure to flames and ember ignition. You can use the Wildfire Preparedness for Farms, Ranches, and Agricultural Operations to help you prioritize actions and make a plan to protect these key resources for that are most critical to you and your operations and resuming normal agricultural activities quickly after a wildfire.

 

BarnHardening
Interpretation of barn A) before and B) after hardening building components for fire resistance.

In addition to the common building components, some structures have specific features that could be improved to increase their resilience to wildfires: 

Agricultural Structure
Vulnerability
Recommendations
Barns
BARNS
 
  • Barns are vulnerable to embers. 
  • Remove combustible materials within the first 5 feet of walls and openings (doors, windows, etc.).
  • Consider storing only non-critical equipment and resources in barns that cannot be retrofitted or improved.
    • In these cases, improve the defensible space by removing dead grass and brush, trash, or stored wooden materials within the first 30 feet from the building.
Trailers
Trailer
  • Trailers are vulnerable to flames and embers.
  • Since they are elevated, embers could accumulate underneath trailer and ignite stored combustible material. 
  • Keep the area surrounding the trailers free of wood, trash, brush, and weeds or skirt the building with metal to protect the underside.
  • Prepare plywood boards (or metal tape) to cover windows and vents before evacuation.
  • When a fire approaches, close all the windows, skylights, and doors.
Greenhouses
Greenhouse
  • Greenhouse and hoop house construction materials and functionality can vary significantly.
  • Glass can shatter when exposed to high heat, whereas plastic coverings tend to melt and burn. 
  • Since greenhouses are unlikely to withstand a wildfire, it is critical to improve their defensible space, as well as to avoid storing critical equipment and materials inside them during the wildfire season.
Other Critical Infrastructure
Filter
  • Critical infrastructure such as water pumps, water filtration systems, power generators, packing sheds, and cold storage containers can be uniquely vulnerable to fire exposures.
  • The area around critical infrastructure should be clear from debris, stored materials and vegetation to protect them from flame contact and embers.
  • Water and other critical resources that could be used to defend your property during a wildfire should be marked and made known to the fire department prior to a fire event.