Mercury Insurance and Wildfire Expert Douglas Kent Address the Basics of Landscaping in Fire Country

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (June 10, 2021) – In 2020, more than 2,300 acres were burned in California as a result of wildfires between January and May. In 2021, that number has ballooned to more than 10,700 acres burned within the same timeframe. California wildfires are more devastating now than ever before, with millions of acres and billions of dollars of property being devastated every year.

“California residents can take actions to protect their homes from wildfires,” said Mercury Insurance Vice President and Chief Underwriting Officer, Kelly Butler. “There are steps you can take now to prepare your home, which will help protect your family and property from a wildfire.”

Firescaping: How to Create Fire-Resistant Landscaping

Residents can take proactive measures to help protect their homes, starting with cultivating a fire-resistant landscape that can endure firebrands for days, intense heat for weeks, and resist ignition, helping Californians protect their neighborhoods, homes and families.

Landscape infrastructure, including driveways, pathways and big landscape features, influence how people interact with the land. To best protect a structure, creating a landscape with ease of access to and from the structure can allow residents to easily evacuate the property and firefighters to easily reach the structure.

The plants a landscape boasts can influence the way a wildfire interacts with a home – by either leading it directly to the structure, or by stopping it in its tracks. Installing fire resistant and fire retardant plants – those with large and broad leaves rather than needle and blade-like leaves, for example – as well as maintaining them, is one of the best proactive measures homeowners can take to protect their properties. 

Wildfire land management professional Douglas Kent, author of “Firescaping: Protecting Your Home with a Fire-Resistant Landscape,” offers his expert advice to homeowners.

About Mercury Insurance

Mercury Insurance (MCY) is a multiple-line insurance organization predominantly offering personal automobile, homeowners and commercial insurance through a network of independent agents in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia. Since 1962, Mercury has specialized in offering quality insurance at affordable prices. For more information visit or and follow the company on .

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Last updated: April 17, 2023