If you live in an area where forest fires are a concern, one thing to look at is your deck. Decks are one of the most common places for a forest fire to transition into a stucture fire. There are a couple things you can do to make your deck less of a fire hazard.

Enclose all of the space under your deck. If you end up with fire under your deck, you will most certainly end up with a complete structure fire. Enclosing your deck will help keep out tree litter and duff which makes great kindling for embers. If you can enclose your deck and keep fire out from under it, you stand a much better chance of not having your deck catch fire.

In addition to enclosing your deck, make sure the area around your deck is free from vegetation - living or dead.

If a fire is coming, remove everything from your deck. Patio furniture, especially the cushions, catch fire more easily than your deck. If something on the deck catches fire, it's likely the deck will follow, so get everything off.

Use fire resistant decking materials. All decking materials are rated A - D by the NFPA and this indicates how resistant they are to fire. A is best, D is worst. For common decking materials, Ipe is the best wood out there with a Class A rating. Following that is Cedar and Redwood which both having ratings of B - C based on the type of wood used. Lastly is the most commonly used wood, pressure-treated Pine with a rating of Class D. Avoid it if you can.

Many people falsely believe that composite decking materials are more fire resistant. Composite materials vary from Class A to D, so they span the full range of fire resistance. Most composite materials are Class D. So if you are considering a composite material, make sure you checking the fire rating first, don't assume it will be better than wood because in many cases wood will be better.