I grew up in wild fire country, and worked for County Forestry in my teens.
Most of the fire breaks I'm familiar with are in So Cal, where most of the vegetation is chaparral.
Our fire breaks were usually at the crests of hills, and a minimum width of about 40 feet.
You cannot stop one of those fires going up a hill. The object is to keep it from going down the other side.
Timber country would need a much wider break.
If you have 100'
trees, the break must be wider than 100', lest one fall across the break.
As far as dealing with wild fires on a permies homestead, I think that a lot of the common precautions taken in other fire areas would be the same.
* Appropriate roofing materials: as pretty as they are, cedar shingles are not suitable for fire prone areas.
* Large, overhanging eaves, while great for catching rainwater, are fire/heat traps.
* Control vegetation close to the house. No tree limbs overhanging the roof, or bushes under the eaves.
* A
pond near the house may save the house. You will need a
good pump - volume and pressure.
For somebody living on a slope in fire country, I would suggest planting low lying crops down slope from the house, and the larger trees up the hill from the house. With the same vegetation, a fire will spread about 16x faster up a slope than on the level. Burning down hill is much slower, and controllable. As a fire races up the hill, it creates its own wind, a 'fire storm' that can easily generate winds 40-60 mph. That's why we seldom fought a fire going up a hill. We would go to the top, and widen the break before it got there, or if it was already going down the other side, we would get a few hundred feet ahead of it and try to cut new breaks before it got to us. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.
Also, keep your plants well watered before and during fire season. Vibrant green plants will sizzle & pop. Dried out plants will explode!
Good luck, and stay safe!
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