Interactive tool
Self-assessment: Is my home ready?
Answer 18 questions about your plot, your home and your habits. You’ll receive a preparedness score and personalised recommendations, based on the criteria used by the emergency services to assess whether a home is ‘defensible’.
This test is anonymous, requires no registration, and does not store any data on our servers. Answer spontaneously — if in doubt, choose the answer that best reflects your actual situation today, not one you envisage ‘someday’.
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1. How far from your home does the natural vegetation (woodland, heathland, wasteland) begin?
2. Has the area within 50 metres of your buildings been cleared (trees spaced out and pruned, grass cut short, litter cleared away)?
3. Are your gutters and roof free of leaves and pine needles in the summer?
4. Are the ventilation openings (attic, crawl space) protected by fine metal mesh?
5. Where is your firewood (or other fuels, such as pallets and cardboard boxes) stored?
6. Do your windows have solid shutters (thick wood, aluminium)?
7. Is there a hedge or a continuous strip of vegetation linking the natural vegetation to your house?
8. Are there any branches overhanging your roof?
9. Would a fire engine be able to get to your house and turn round?
10. Do you have a supply of usable water (swimming pool, tank, borehole with a pump)?
11. Do you have a garden hose that reaches all the way round the house, or a fire extinguisher?
12. Are gas cylinders stored away from other items and clearly marked?
13. Have you put together an emergency kit (documents, medicines, water, torch)?
14. Does your family know what to do if a fire approaches (stay indoors, evacuate, meet at a designated meeting point)?
15. Do you check the forest weather forecast or the alert notices during the summer ?
16. Do you carry out any work that produces sparks (using an angle grinder or a brush cutter) in the summer?
17. What do you do with your garden waste?
18. Would you be able to recognise an FR-Alert and do you know what to do if you receive one?
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Level : —
An indicative score, based on the main vulnerability factors observed by the emergency services. It is not a substitute for a professional diagnosis or compliance with theOLD.
After the test: where to start?
Whatever your score, the order of effectiveness is almost always the same :
- Clear the undergrowth over a distance of 50 metres — the game-changing measure (which is compulsory in high-risk areas).
- Tracking down sparks : gutters, mesh vents, remote storage areas — see protect my home.
- Preparing people : 72-hour kit, family plan, reflexes during the fire.
The risk changes every day. So do your reflexes.
Check the fire alert status for your department, keep track of current fires and report a fire via the Feux de Forêt mobile app.