What are the best practices for safely storing firewood and propane tanks? Are there specific clearance requirements?
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Great question!
For wildfire purposes, there are three zones around homes in wildland urban areas in California. Zone 0 goes from 0-5 ft around your home, then Zone 1 from 5-30 ft, then zone 2, from 30-100ftânot many homes in Berkeley actually have a Zone 2!
source: CalFire
Firewood
a woodpile of exposed firewood can only be stored in Zone 2, i.e. more than 30ft away from your home (or any structure). The wood pile should be surrounded in every direction by a 10-ft wide zone cleared down to bare mineral ground, with absolutely nothing combustible on top of the soil.
Propane
Propane tanks cannot be stored in Zone 0 or Zone 1 either, but only in Zone 2. They must be surrounded in all directions, like a woodpile, by 10 feet of total clearance down to the bare mineral ground, but, on top of that, they required an additional 10 feet of clearance in all direction without any flammable vegetation.
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Thatâs pretty problematic for propane BBQs. Many people have these and they are pretty much all in Zone 1. Are you sure that this is a regulation?
Dave, I believe this above discussion was for stationary propane tanks, or, in general, above 5 gallons, not propane tanks for BBQs. These are the ones targeted by the regulation.
That said, while I am not aware of any regulations specific to propane tanks for BBQs, they are covered under âflammable materialâ, since they will explode if exposed to wildfire. It would not make sense to leave propane tanks out during fire season, in particular in Zone 0. We take ours into the house, behind a fire-resistant door sided with Hardie board.
As a reference, here is the latest version of the Berkeley Fire Code (propane is a class I liquid, since its flashpoint is (-) negative 100F): 19.48.020 Amendments to the California Fire Code | Berkeley Municipal Code
You might want to watch Mythbusters Season 6 Episode 12 for a lark 