After the Caldor Fire threatened South Tahoe in 2021 I started thinking more about our place.
We had been picking up all dead wood and I had been cleaning up 30' into the next door lot, but you're supposed to have 100 ft of defensible space. My cleanup only resulted in 70 ft.
(We are only legally required to clean up to our property line).
After a lightning storm at the beginning of September started 2 fires 2 and 4 miles behind us I got worried.

I was more worried about the lots next door.
So, I had a defensible space inspection from the North Tahoe Fire Protection District last week.
I thought we'd be pretty good, but wanted to know how much of the pine needles we can leave because there are conflicting guidelines on this.

Bottom Line is:
He did a curb inspection of the lots next door and will send them a report on what he found, which requires them to respond in 30 days.

As far as our lot goes there is some cleanup recommended.
We only need to remove pine needles from the deck, front and back porches and 5' back from the house and garage.
But there are a lot of other recommendations including cutting dead limbs up to 15', limbs hanging down more than 6 feet and removing some small trees that can act as a ladder to spread to larger trees above them. The large tree next to the back deck is too close to the house so should come out.
Also covering wood piles with fireproof tarps.

Most fires are started by embers landing in trees or the yard. (and the garage roof, but he didn't say that that was urgent)

Below is a summary of the defensible space inspection report (pdf attached), with notes transcribed by Tom based on my conversation with the inspector in red. These are only recommendations. They will not be back to check on us, but I think we should try and comply before the next fire season.

Here is TOm's transcription of the report with my notes added. See a link to the actual report below.

- Remove dead and dying trees, branches and shrubs -> utilities company will remove some of the larger trees, but we are responsible for removing the smaller trees. We should remove small trees close to the house, and small trees that are below larger trees to prevent the "ladder effect". Don has noted which trees we are responsible for and can point them out.

- Remove or separate live ground cover or shrubs-> we should considerably thin out the shrubs and woody ground cover on the east and south sides.

- Remove flammable vegetation and items that could catch fire-> split rail fence pieces should be removed

- Relocate exposed woodpiles outside zone 1, or cover in a fire-resistant material-> we should look into fire-resistant covers for our woodpiles, in particular the one behind the garage Zone 2/ 30-100 feet of all structures or to the property line:

- All exposed woodpiles must have a minimum of 10 feet clearance, down to bare mineral soil, in all directions-> woodpile by the fire pit should have fire-resistant cover and/or raked for twigs.

- Dead and dying woody surface fuels and aerial fuels shall be removed. Loose surface litter, normally of fallen leaves or needles, twigs, bark, cones, and small branches, shall be permitted to maximum depth of 3 inches-> our typical strategy of clearing large branches but leaving needles in most areas is fine, but we *should* rake twigs and needles around woodpiles and near the house

Other requirements:
Outbuildings and liquid propane gas storage tanks shall have 10 feet of clearance to bare mineral soil and no flammable vegetation for an additional 10 feet around their exterior

Comments:
Maintain first 5 feet as non-combustible zone around building and deck. Remove limbs within 10 feet of roofs. Remove dead tree: Sierra Pacific/Liberty Utilities coming to remove dead tree. Remove any dead limbs up to 15 feet.

NTFD Inspection Report