They call them Fire Breaks for a reason! You cut them and maintain them. We’ve got 18 miles of fire breaks on the ranch and a 200ft break around the ranch house. While those big beautiful trees around the house are nice they’re also a trap. 5 years ago we had two big fires the same year, one took out 5 sections and the other took out 11. The only thing we lost was fences in some places where the breaks hadn’t been cut. We have 72 oil wells and 17 tank battery’s and all had breaks cut around them. This was one of the hottest driest years we’d had in a long time, barely enough water in the ponds for the helo’s to refill. It took one man with a dozer just over 30 days to cut all the breaks. The big fires in central Texas wouldn’t have taken so many homes if people would just keep it clear around their property. This kind of damage doesn’t have to happen if people would just prepare a little.