If using a pool for water, one must be careful. A fiberglass pool, if there is groundwater present, will lift out of the ground as the water is removed. Most of the water has to go before this happens, and small loss compared to a home, but it will cut off the water supply.

There are some companies that sell a fire supressent gell that can be applied with a garden hose...while the pressure lasts. This material is biodegradable and will coat a house for hours using a tithe of the water it would normally take to protect a structure. We've looked into storing some of this, I'll have to dig up the links.

The closest a brush fire has come to our house was about a quarter mile. We were not home at the time, but we watched it on the news and got regular, very late night updates from neighbors. We like to say we pre-evacuated. Sleepless night, to say the least. Our local, and other, fire departments did an great job. No structures were lost. The kid with the bottle rockets was never found.

Within the year we got a new roof. The old was cedar shingle, and for being at least 30 years old, it was still in pretty good shape. Not a single leak. But it was dry (It'd soak up the oil treatment like a sponge) and if just one cinder landed on that roof, the whole house would be gone in minutes. The new roof was pricey, but worth the peace o' mind. Stone coated steel is what they call it. It's a metal roof, screwed into 2x2's, with a stone chips epoxied onto it so that it looks like an asphalt roof. Textured, too, to give it some depth. The cinders would roll off this roof. We sleep better under this roof than the old one.

All this reminds me of a story I heard during the infamous Haymen fire a few years back. There was a guy who had a poorly kept compound in the mountains. His gate was triple locked, with signs that said "No Trespassing" and "Government Stay out!" and "If you are wearing a uniform, you are not welcome"....

The firefighters who encountered this gate chose not to enter, and let it all burn.