Firewise

[twinfin]

I live on a ridge with slopes on three sides of my house in the Pacific Northwest. The threat of wildfire necessitates that I keep a healthy amount of clearance and good vegetation management out to at least 100’ around the house. The National Fire Protection Association puts out some great information on how to create defensible space through their Firewise educational materials. These are the guidelines I’m following.

Though I’ve been nibbling away at this project since I’ve owned this property, I could never seem to really get at it and make a dent in all the work that needed to be done. So, I finally just bit the bullet and hired a crew to get this project done. Should have done it sooner. After three weeks of cutting, trimming and stacking brush piles for later burning, the work is done (except for the brush pile burning that will come in the Fall). We went well past 100’ on the steeper slopes. The property now has a totally different feel too. Much more open, clean and healthy looking.

I’ve been sort of holding my breath each fire season thinking about how I’ve needed to get this project completed. The house itself is well constructed to resist wildfire with metal roof, non combustible siding and no wooden decks or fences to carry fire to the house. It’s the fire load of brush and trees combined with slope that until now, would have carried a great deal of heat much too close for comfort. Now, there’s enough thinning to greatly reduce heat load and momentum well before a fire front reaches the house.

Using the Firewise guidelines was really helpful in making sure that the work I paid to have done would be done logically and maximize my home’s survivability in a wildfire event. I’m so glad this project is done and for the first time, feel a sense of optimism rather than dread as the summer fire season approaches.

[Duck Killer]

It isn’t 100 feet it realistically 300 feet. Dirt doesn’t burn. Everything else does. Get yourself a dozer or at least rent one. Water really doesn’t mean much since you will never have enough and to many things go wrong.

Once a fire is up to temperature it will burn or melt everything. They will shut off your power and water. They will threaten to arrest you for not leaving. Propane generators will run out really fast and you will have a hell of a time me getting a propane truck after the fire.

you don’t fight fires you prepare for them. Once they are there you don’t have the time nor the energy.

what some people need to learn is that not all properties or structures are defendable. Once you live through a fire all you see if fuel for the rest of your life.

If you really want to prepare for a fire. Turn off your power solar panels water and see how life is. Then imagine everything going to ****. No going into town. All roads are closed. Cell phone services will be shut off soon.

[user120312]

Though I left most of that world behind, I still follow a fire science guy up in NorCal who, while not Youtube popular in stats, provides solid knowledge and experience in the realities of wildland management and how fire fits into that.

Here's a short recent example of something that came to mind when reading the OP, since few of us have ranches sprawling over many miles, rather have neighbors, in my case many, so community firewise becomes more important.

Sometimes I sit on the deck and chuckle a bit as one neighbor, winter or summer, works diligently to get and keep his burn pile going. It's that wet here; even dead wood is hard to dry out and burn. I got my own experience with that a few weeks ago, when a neighbor's crab apple tree down by the creek lost a big branch that fell on my wood pile and food pantry.

The pile of prunings from it, nothing big, loping size, I cleared to get it off my stuff I figured I'd throw on my burn pile and dry out and eventually burn. After a week of that, and it still sitting there staring at me, into the chipper it went to make mulch.

I bet the neighbor, who doesn't live there because well, it's a corporation whose employees visit from time to time, won't clean up the rest of the tree. It'll sit there, broken. Another one of their trees, a big one, maybe 40' tall, leaned over the creek and my redwood is keeping it from falling on another neighbor's house. Sample images...

IMG_2264.jpg IMG_2265.jpg
The white building is one of their guest houses, the one closest to my place. That compound is huge and goes back to the beach. Don't let the scale fool, that redwood is gigantic, over 6' in diameter at the base. The leaner is a big fir. One can see that clearancing buildings isn't a factor here, even for rich property owners. To the right of the broken tree is the creek, about ten feet from the guest house.

There was a time when I got all wound up about such things. At the end of life what does it really matter? Enjoy the rain and peace and quiet and whatever God brings He does. I will miss those crabapples though.

[twinfin]

It isn’t 100 feet it realistically 300 feet. Dirt doesn’t burn. Everything else does. Get yourself a dozer or at least rent one. Water really doesn’t mean much since you will never have enough and to many things go wrong.

Once a fire is up to temperature it will burn or melt everything. They will shut off your power and water. They will threaten to arrest you for not leaving. Propane generators will run out really fast and you will have a hell of a time me getting a propane truck after the fire.

you don’t fight fires you prepare for them. Once they are there you don’t have the time nor the energy.

what some people need to learn is that not all properties or structures are defendable. Once you live through a fire all you see if fuel for the rest of your life.

If you really want to prepare for a fire. Turn off your power solar panels water and see how life is. Then imagine everything going to ****. No going into town. All roads are closed. Cell phone services will be shut off soon.

Thank you for your sentiments and observations, most of which I wouldn't dispute except that I’ve moved far beyond most of those concerns. Living off-grid, in a rural community with an extremely pro-liberty Sheriff and having already fought wildland fire in the middle of the night on my last homestead, has given me insight and experience in what to expect.

None of this is for the faint of heart and you well describe many of the potential perils. On the other hand, careful planning and wise decision making can lead to a greater sense of peace and readiness as we head into the coming fire season.

This major land clearing and trimming effort has put me in a much better position than I have ever been ay my present homestead. It was the last but most importantly piece of the puzzle to be put in place.

[twinfin]

Though I left most of that world behind, I still follow a fire science guy up in NorCal who, while not Youtube popular in stats, provides solid knowledge and experience in the realities of wildland management and how fire fits into that….

….

YouTuber “The Lookout” has some very good videos if one is interested in a deeper understanding of fire behavior as it relates to property and structure protection. He also does good realtime analysis of major events as they unfold during fire season. Good catch User 120312.

[user120312]

YouTuber “The Lookout” has some very good videos if one is interested in a deeper understanding of fire behavior as it relates to property and structure protection. He also does good realtime analysis of major events as they unfold during fire season. Good catch User 120312.

Yeah, if fire ever became a factor here, I'd turn to guys like Zeke who've forgotten more about wildland fire than I'll ever know. Fortunately, we have local loggers who are pretty knowledgable too. Prescribed burning is still an often used tool for forestry here.

[Duck Killer]

Thank you for your sentiments and observations, most of which I wouldn't dispute except that I’ve moved far beyond most of those concerns. Living off-grid, in a rural community with an extremely pro-liberty Sheriff and having already fought wildland fire in the middle of the night on my last homestead, has given me insight and experience in what to expect.

None of this is for the faint of heart and you well describe many of the potential perils. On the other hand, careful planning and wise decision making can lead to a greater sense of peace and readiness as we head into the coming fire season.

This major land clearing and trimming effort has put me in a much better position than I have ever been ay my present homestead. It was the last but most importantly piece of the puzzle to be put in place.

What you are doing is great. Not saying otherwise in any way. The factor that is hard to predict is all the **** going wrong. Dozer running great for years then blowing radiator. Unlimited spring water then the fire burns the lines. Pumps running out of fuel at the wrong time. Learning that trash pumps are no good to fight fires. Being bullied by cal fire. Sheriff being kicked out for highway patrol. I went through the 2020 SCU fires. If you want to talk I will go through everything that was unexpected. I literally prepared for ten years and still wasn’t prepared. That is why I am so harsh with people preparing for fires. I literally had calfire and my uncle who was running a fire crew a mile down the road and got zero help before, during, and after the fire.

[user120312]

I noticed when a guy from SoCal bought a couple properties in the neighborhood, both acreage with forest, the first thing he did was started cutting down and limbing up trees. Feeling the thud of those big firs hitting the ground kinda bumbed me since I knew a couple centuries of growth had ended, but such was commonplace in Oregon a century ago as old growth was logged widely.

OTOH, this is what I look at out of my living room window, probably a nightmare to that SoCal guy. Note the window frame in the upper right corner. Yeah, the forest is that close.

OnALmIp.jpg

I don't own any of that, rather corporations and the State of Oregon does. As far as I know, it's been like that for centuries. Could it burn tomorrow? Anything is possible. History is on my side though. I don't play the insurance game and will simply drive away or die while sheltering in the prep I have constructed for wildland fire and other emergencies.

The good news with the SoCal guy's denuding of his larger acreage is there's more room for a gun range since we shoot on our properties and distance shooting amongst a dense forest is pretty impractical. It all works out.

[twinfin]

What you are doing is great. Not saying otherwise in any way. The factor that is hard to predict is all the **** going wrong. Dozer running great for years then blowing radiator. Unlimited spring water then the fire burns the lines. Pumps running out of fuel at the wrong time. Learning that trash pumps are no good to fight fires. Being bullied by cal fire. Sheriff being kicked out for highway patrol. I went through the 2020 SCU fires. If you want to talk I will go through everything that was unexpected. I literally prepared for ten years and still wasn’t prepared. That is why I am so harsh with people preparing for fires. I literally had calfire and my uncle who was running a fire crew a mile down the road and got zero help before, during, and after the fire.

Would that have been the August lightning complex fires that roared through the Bay Area in 2020? Had a buddy show up at my door as a refugee for that one (I’m about a day’s drive north).

There’s nothing like personal experience to learn from and that’s why we’re all here on this forum. If you feel like taking some time to add more about what you experienced back in 2020 I’m sure the readers here, myself included, would like to learn from what you experience first hand.

Good point about expecting the unexpected. I’m a firm believer in having a plan, a backup plan and more planning because it never goes down like you think it will. Semper Gumby (always flexible)!

[Duck Killer]

Would that have been the August lightning complex fires that roared through the Bay Area in 2020? Had a buddy show up at my door as a refugee for that one (I’m about a day’s drive north).

There’s nothing like personal experience to learn from and that’s why we’re all here on this forum. If you feel like taking some time to add more about what you experienced back in 2020 I’m sure the readers here, myself included, would like to learn from what you experience first hand.

Good point about expecting the unexpected. I’m a firm believer in having a plan, a backup plan and more planning because it never goes down like you think it will. Semper Gumby (always flexible)!

Yeah it was the big Bay Area fire. I burned on day three. It was a different fire. It was like 80 fires that combined. It was like 100 plus degrees out but because of the smoke it felt like 70. The fire hit us at about 30 miles per hour. In certain areas it killed all the trees instantly leaving the leaves on the trees. It flashed over. It traveled so fast an calfire crew got trapped. Almost took out the Calfire station. Those Calfire guys were calling in everything they had. From what I understand they were ****ting themselves. Calfire had 8 dozers and over 100 guys at the station but were under orders not to deploy until the fire was big enough to get federal funding. It rained ashes on us the size of shoeboxes lighting everything on fire. The mountain burned for over 24 hours straight. It was so bright that at night it looked like during the day. Talking to the calfire guys after they had never seen a fire like this. The area hadn’t burned in over 100 years


Sadly it isn’t the fire that was the biggest problem. It was the federal money grab from the state and county that was the biggest problem. They wanted inspections of all burn site. They trespassed on everyone’s property. Literally had teams to red tag properties the day after they burned. Then tried to force everyone to do the cleanup through the county program. They gave me nothing but problems for doing the cleanup myself. Even with dump receipts and their inspections. They wanted all property owners to give them 3 years of unlimited access after the cleanup. Calfire let people homes burn to protect the observatory. 2/3 of the local population lost their homes. Most were off grid homes. That were built 30-50 years ago. All permits were brought to current standards inwhich even the permitted homes couldn’t get permits today because of acreage restrictions and environmental impacts. The fire destroyed the area the government destroyed everything left.

None the less the highway patrol who closed down the area weeks after the fire passed. At first they were local old guys that would let you pass then they sent out new guys that were real *******s.


The moral of the story with fire is you’re going to lose something. Fire takes something from everyone. Protect what you can’t replace first. Permitted structures. Power meters are really the only thing that the county can keep you from getting. They will use the power meter permit to force you to everything they want. They will keep adding more to the list to get your meter.

[twinfin]

Thanks for sharing Mr. Duck Killer. Sad that after surviving the fire, folks in your area couldn’t survive their government.

[user120312]

Life can be challenging in the urban wildland interface if one is a prepper. In and of itself it isn't, but dealing with civilization and other humans often is. It doesn't have to be that way but humans just can't help themselves sometimes. Disasters seem to bring out the best, and worst, in the human race.

I watched a recent example with street reporters in The Palisaides and what those residents are going through, very similar to what members here have faced in their experiences with fire, other disasters, and humans.

My prayers go out to them. I had to make some hard decisions during the Covid op and those experiences brought back an acknowledgment of spirituality and its role in survival.

So far, in life, I've found few to no more challenging and infuriating tasks than dealing with beaurocracy, especially when it trends to tyranny, which it increasingly has in my experience. Still, we give consent and have free will. I made my choice and wish others well in theirs.