A small fire on Tuesday on Hubbard Road off East End Road apparently started from a hot chainsaw set on duff, or dried vegetation. The home- owner called 911 first and then put out the fire. Homer Volunteer Fire Department, Kachemak Emergency Services and State Forestry firefighters responded.

The fire that started May 12 threatened 150 homes in the area from Mile 16 to the Russian Old Believer villages of Voznesenka, Razdolna and Kachemak Selo. Eight structures were destroyed, including two year-round homes.

Many homes surviving the fire did so because of luck and a rapid response by firefighters -- and the Firewise program that provides help so homeowners can create defensible space around their homes.

Firewise, a cooperative program with State Forestry, the Kenai Peninsula Borough and the U.S. Forest Service, teaches residents how to minimize fire danger around their homes. Although a grant for a Firewise team ran out last year, the borough hopes to use about $500,000 in federal stimulus money to subsidize 80 percent of the cost to remove trees and slash from around homes, said Duane Bannock, program manager for the borough Spruce Bark Beetle Mitigation Program.

Aron and Jeanne Peterson credit Firewise with saving their retirement home on Mountain View Circle. In the summer of 2008, a Firewise team visited the Petersons and gave them advice on clearing defensible space. The team, Meg Cicciarella and Jim Dress, suggested things like mowing the grass within a 30-foot zone and trimming the lower branches of trees. Flammable material like firewood also should be moved 30 feet away from structures.

"They were just super, down-to-earth people who told us what to do," Aron Peterson said.

A program to haul away slash also helped, Peterson said.

"They took three huge truck loads of brush that we removed from here," he said. "There's just no way I could have burned it."

A view of the Peterson home showed how close the fire came to taking the house. Fire scorched the lawn all the way up a gravel driveway. Flames that roared up a gully to the west came the closest.

"It was incredible how it turned in there," Peterson said. "It came up the hill. We had burn marks on the deck. There were burn marks on the welcome mat."

Details still need to be worked out, but Bannock said the borough plans a renewal of the Firewise program and teams. As with the Petersons, a Firewise team would visit homes and make recommendations -- "write a prescription," is how Bannock put it. With that plan, the homeowner then would hire a contractor to take down dead trees, trim branches and remove slash. The program focuses on removing dead trees from the defensible space in that 30- to 100-foot zone around a house and isn't for logging on large lots.

Rather than have the homeowner pay the contractor and be reimbursed -- as with an earlier program -- Bannock wants to keep it simple. The homeowner pays 20 percent of the cost to the contractor, and the borough pays the contractor directly for the balance, with a maximum payment of $1,600.

"It's likely easier and more convenient for you to write a check for $400 than write a check for $2,000," Bannock said. "I think it's a justifiable cost not just from the homeowner's standpoint, but from the fire department's."

Another idea is for the borough to set up free approved slash disposal sites, such as in old gravel pits. To create fire breaks in areas with high wildland fire danger, the borough also wants to hire contractors to fell dead beetle-kill trees and buck them up into short logs. Residents then could salvage logs for firewood under a permit program. The borough is looking at one such site off Greer Road.

Bannock said the former Firewise grant had 200 people on a waiting list to get trees removed before the state ran out of money.

"I know that the demand is there," he said.

Homeowners don't need to wait for assistance to start taking Firewise steps. Because of the fire danger from running chainsaws, now's not the time anyway to fell or prune trees. Trees also are growing and shouldn't be cut until the fall, Roesch said.

Under its "Firewise for All Seasons" plan, spring is the time to "clean and clear." Rake up dry, dead grasses and remove twigs and debris to a safe location outside the ignition zone. Summer is the time to "mow and grow." Keep grass clipped short around the house, and plant fire-resistant vegetation like rose bushes or currants.

"People should try to get it greened up," Roesch said of lawns around homes. "It should be lean, clean and green."

Final details for the debris clearing program are being worked out, Bannock said. He hopes to have a plan in place by the end of June. Details will be announced and available through the borough annex in Homer on Pioneer Avenue.

Peterson highly recommended the Firewise program.

"Anybody who hasn't done it, they really need to," Peterson said.

For more information on Firewise, call Roesch at (907) 260-4262. For information on the Spruce Bark Beetle Mitigation Program, call (907) 714-2430.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michaelarmstrong.@homernews.com.