The Rail Ridge Fire south of Dayville in Grant County scorched more than 164,000 acres in 2024 — part of a record breaking fire season in Oregon that year. Grant County Emergency Management

With the possibility of another challenging fire season on the horizon, Oregon fire officials are encouraging residents to prepare their homes for wildfires before they start.

Preparation will be key, they said, as Oregon’s temperature and precipitation outlook this year looks “eerily similar” to 2024 when the state saw one of the most destructive wildfire seasons in its history, with a record 1.9 million acres burned across the state, $350 million in firefighting bills and nearly 200 homes damaged.

Amid the devastation, some homes withstood the fires because they had defensible space, said State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple.

Creating defensible space — an area around the home that’s mowed and free of overgrown brush and dry or flammable materials — can help a property survive a wildfire, Ruiz-Temple said. That’s because embers — debris that can travel up to 3 miles from the main fire — are the biggest reason homes burn down, experts say.

Though Oregon has been working to boost staffing at local fire agencies, modernize response equipment and invest in wildfire resiliency projects across the state, large fires spread quickly and some can’t be fought.

Property owners can make their homes more resilient to wildfires without spending a lot of money, officials said. They can also get a free wildfire home assessment with fire agencies across the state. In Portland, about 1,000 such assessments have been conducted in recent years by Portland Fire & Rescue.

Here’s how to harden your home against wildfire:

• Space and prune trees to prevent fire from climbing into canopies.
• Remove leaves, pine needles, bark mulch and other debris within 100 feet of structures or up to your property line.
• Clean roofs and gutters of flammable debris.
• Move combustible materials such as mulch and firewood away from your home.
• Keep plants trimmed and clear of dead material, especially near the house.
• Avoid planting directly under eaves; leave at least a 5-foot buffer.
• Install one-sixteenth-inch to one-eighth-inch metal mesh over vents to block embers.