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I read about the Roberts Road house fire with interest, especially the part about paint on the neighbor's house blistering from the heat. Are there any rules in Central Point, where I live, about the amount of firewood that can be stored between houses? Many people store firewood (including me), but my neighbor has six to eight cords of it stacked tightly in one pile between his house and ours. If his woodpile ignited, I think I would have a problem much worse than blistering paint. — Kyle G., Central Point We checked with Central Point's code enforcement folks, Kyle, and there's nothing on the books about how much firewood a person can store or where or how it must be stored. The "rules" for storing firewood aren't hard and fast. A lot depends on where you live and how closely the houses are spaced. Out in the country, in what firefighters call the "wildland urban interface," they recommend storing firewood at least 20 feet from your home to prevent the likelihood of the structure catching fire if a burning ember from a wildfire ignites the woodpile. In city and suburban neighborhoods where buildings are closer together, it's a different story because the fire risks are different. Margueritte Hickman, fire marshal for the Ashland Fire Department, says the Oregon Fire Code requires that firewood not be stacked within 10 feet of a property boundary, unless the stack is less than six feet high. Shorter stacks can be made within three feet of a property line. So in theory, your neighbor could stack firewood five feet high right up to within three feet of your common boundary. If your neighbor's woodpile really bothers you, you should probably have a conversation with him (or her). Send questions to "Since You Asked," Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; or by e-mail to [email protected]. We're sorry, but the volume of questions received prevents us from answering all of them.