Southerners’ Attitudes about Creating Defensible Space

People must have the motive, means, and opportunity to create defensible space (Hodgson 1996).  Certain beliefs will discourage people from creating defensible space such as the opinions that government is responsible for reducing fire hazards, that insurance will pay to replace any property damages, that fire is not ‘natural’, that fire will cost more than it is worth, or that fire will cause discomfort (Smith and Rebori 2001).  People may adopt attitudes that will deter them from taking action to reduce fire hazards by creating defensible space including denial, fatalism, and futility (McCaffrey 2004: Smith and Rebori 2001).  The following quotes illustrate some of the attitudes that can cause people to not create defensible space (Smith and Rebori 2001):

• “I didn’t know there was a wildfire threat to my neighborhood”
• “It won’t happen to me”
• “It’s all fate. When your number is up, it’s up”
• “It won’t make a difference”
• “It’s not my job”
• “If it was really important, my insurance company would give me a break on my premium”
• “So what, my insurance company will build me a new house”
• “It’s wrong to cut trees”
• “It won’t look good”
• “I don’t want to because of snakes, lyme disease, poison oak…”
• “I don’t have the time or money to do it”
• “I don’t know what to do”
• “I don’t have an easy way to get rid of that stuff”
• ”It’s against the law”
• “The problem is on my neighbor’s property”