Home-based Firefighting Equipment

[7mm-08]

After seeing the wildfire devastation in southern California over the last week, I was hoping that there would be some knowledgeable homeowners or wildland or structure firefighters on the site to give me some advice. I live in a location that is one house back from public greenspace that has cheatgrass, sage and other combustibles that come right up to my neighbor's property line. We've had more than a few close calls with range fires in fairly close proximity to our Boise neighborhood over the years and I'm contemplating purchasing some personal firefighting equipment to protect our house should the need arise. We have an inground pool with a capacity of around 17,000 gallons and a fire hydrant 200 feet away from the front of our house. As we all saw in the southern California situation, cities cannot be depended upon to have the infrastructure in place to guarantee that there is going to be adequate water at a hydrant or adequate manpower to fight a fire should numerous structures be burning at the same time . Thus, my desire to have something in place (however potentially inadequate it may be) to have a fighting chance to save our property should the need arise.

Here's my equipment list so far:

Waterax Mini-Striker High-Pressure Fire Pump (this is a gasoline powered portable unit)
Priming device
A section of hard line to supply water from our pool to the pump
A couple sections of discharge hose to reach around to the front of our house from the pump
A nozzle for the discharge hose
Do I need turnout gear in this situation? I know that structure firefighters wear it, but wildland guys appear to wear clothing with Nomex fire resistant fabric.

Thanks for your thoughts on this subject. Suggestions welcome.

 

[Northpark]

I’m in wildland fire. It’s pretty simple. A sprinkler kit, a gas powered pump. And please remove all vegetation anywhere near your home. Move to non combustible landscaping. Don’t keep your firewood pile anywhere near your house, think gravel instead of grass yard, limited shrubs. Clean your roof and gutters. Turnout gear is not needed. If you need turnout gear you shouldn’t be there anymore. If you refuse evac orders it’s likely you’ll make a problem worse for the guys on the ground. Prep your house be ready to evac at all times by having your medications, valuables and paperwork or laptop located and easy to grab.

And if your neighbors won’t clean up their yard you can only do so much. It’s not about removing fire from the system because that’s impossible. We’ve always had fire and always will so it’s about learning to make our communities resilient to it through fuels removal, wise home construction and placement choices and using wildfire and prescribed fire as a tool.

Happy to try to answer questions on effective home prep and wildland fire.

 

[Overdrive]

Seems like the first thing I'd invest in would be a good reliable back up generator, almost every fire I've seen they cut power. Without power you're not running any pump to any of your hoses.

 

[7mm-08]

Seems like the first thing I'd invest in would be a good reliable back up generator, almost every fire I've seen they cut power. Without power you're not running any pump to any of your hoses.

The pump I listed is a gasoline powered unit. Sorry, forgot to mention that, but I've since fixed it.

 

[WTFJohn]

After seeing the wildfire devastation in southern California over the last week, I was hoping that there would be some knowledgeable homeowners or wildland or structure firefighters on the site to give me some advice. I live in a location that is one house back from public greenspace that has cheatgrass, sage and other combustibles that come right up to my neighbor's property line. We've had more than a few close calls with range fires in fairly close proximity to our Boise neighborhood over the years and I'm contemplating purchasing some personal firefighting equipment to protect our house should the need arise. We have an inground pool with a capacity of around 17,000 gallons and a fire hydrant 200 feet away from the front of our house. As we all saw in the southern California situation, cities cannot be depended upon to have the infrastructure in place to guarantee that there is going to be adequate water at a hydrant or adequate manpower to fight a fire should numerous structures be burning at the same time . Thus, my desire to have something in place (however potentially inadequate it may be) to have a fighting chance to save our property should the need arise.

Here's my equipment list so far:

Waterax Mini-Striker High-Pressure Fire Pump
Priming device
A section of hard line to supply water from our pool to the pump
A couple sections of discharge hose to reach around to the front of our house from the pump
A nozzle for the discharge hose
Do I need turnout gear in this situation? I know that structure firefighters wear it, but wildland guys appear to wear clothing with Nomex fire resistant fabric.

Thanks for your thoughts on this subject. Suggestions welcome.

We use trash pumps (1" and 2"), with hard suction lines and soft discharge lines with nozzle ends for our mobile/ranch firefighting setup. Ponds, ditches, water tanks; source (and quality of water) doesn't matter.

We use them for other things too though, that may not matter or apply to you.

 

[Randle]

property and Home owner here,
parents live on our property so I have twice the prep work.
I built a fire trailer, 650 gallons and a trash pump.
it is more for wetting things down prior to fir reaching us, or if a neighbor has a slash pile fire starting to grow We can hopefully get it under control.
This is where a go bag is in order,
change of clothes , hygiene ,meds, etc.
Qe also have a 16000 gal pool that the fire dept knows they can draw from and is easily accessible.
Sprinkler on a 12 ft tripod that goes 360 and wets down thr folks place and surrounding landscape.its hooked up and ready from may to october.
4th of july trailer is hooked to a truck and hoses stretched prior to going to bed.
Dont but north 40 crap blue hose.

 

[MuleyFever]

After seeing the wildfire devastation in southern California over the last week, I was hoping that there would be some knowledgeable homeowners or wildland or structure firefighters on the site to give me some advice. I live in a location that is one house back from public greenspace that has cheatgrass, sage and other combustibles that come right up to my neighbor's property line. We've had more than a few close calls with range fires in fairly close proximity to our Boise neighborhood over the years and I'm contemplating purchasing some personal firefighting equipment to protect our house should the need arise. We have an inground pool with a capacity of around 17,000 gallons and a fire hydrant 200 feet away from the front of our house. As we all saw in the southern California situation, cities cannot be depended upon to have the infrastructure in place to guarantee that there is going to be adequate water at a hydrant or adequate manpower to fight a fire should numerous structures be burning at the same time . Thus, my desire to have something in place (however potentially inadequate it may be) to have a fighting chance to save our property should the need arise.

Here's my equipment list so far:

Waterax Mini-Striker High-Pressure Fire Pump (this is a gasoline powered portable unit)
Priming device
A section of hard line to supply water from our pool to the pump
A couple sections of discharge hose to reach around to the front of our house from the pump
A nozzle for the discharge hose
Do I need turnout gear in this situation? I know that structure firefighters wear it, but wildland guys appear to wear clothing with Nomex fire resistant fabric.

Thanks for your thoughts on this subject. Suggestions welcome.

I would get it set up as a sprinkler system you can start and walk away from as a means to stop ignition on your roof or areas around your home. If you get into a situation where the wind is pushing the flames from your neighbors house to yours there is a high likelihood you wont be able to stand the heat without structure gear. Wildland Nomex is good to keep you from starting on fire but doesn't do much to keep you from getting hot. Also, if you really get into it you wont be able to breath without supplied air. Its pretty overwhelming when you end up in the smoke on a windy fire.

 

[JFK]

City firefighter here, and we we do some wildland work. It really is best to not stick around if evacuated, but I understand your desire to be prepared and have a shot if help isn’t around.

Your list looks decent. I’d add some ability to get that water to roof sprinklers. You can build them out of pvc and use traditional rain bird type heads from Home Depot. If you do leave you can leave them on and it helps a lot with ember cast even if the fire doesn’t directly impinge on your property.

I also wouldn’t necessarily discount the hydrant. 200’ of 2.5” with a shutoff valve at the hydrant to a gated wye at your property line, with enough 1.5” to fully wrap your property from both sides is quicker than messing with a pump.

 

[TaperPin]

If you’re going to be a fire fighter you’ll need training. It sounds cool to stand your ground and spray water, but you’re in a wind driven fire with the neighbors house between you and it - the amount of smoke coming off a burning house, cedar fences, let alone the grass and sage, isn’t a small issue, and the fire hasn’t even made it to you yet. A fellow firefighter showed up to a wildland fire where an employee of a business owner tried to save the business and was burned over - his clothes were burned off, hair gone, skin falling off his arms, face, legs. He was walking dead - his throat just hadn’t closed up from heat damage yet.

Everything you can do to eliminate fuels and prevent ignition points on your house and the neighbors is time well spent. Look into construction details that are fire resistant. Places leaves, grass and pine needles sit are places embers can get you. Embers entering normal attic vents burns down many stucco houses with concrete tile roofs and brick pavers on the patio. Bare fences get baked to where their moisture is ridiculously low. Woodpiles, combustible landscaping bushes, sheds full of gas and combustibles, low hanging tree limbs less than head high, trees next to the house, any wood structure next to the house. I wouldn’t let sage or cheat grass grow within 50 yards - you’ll probably be told it’s not legal to mow grass or remove brush on public land, so I wouldn’t ask for permission or make it real obvious when going around with a weed eater. New electric week eaters are quite good and very quiet.

The fire in 2008 that burned down the houses in Boise didn’t have flames directly on any of the houses - the 12” tall brush and cheat grass ran into a retaining wall too tall for flames to directly set anything on fire - landscaping bushes, decks, cedar shingles and attic vents let wind blown embers get fires started. Wind driven fires can happen quickly - I personally saw the 2008 fire right after it started - in the 20 minutes it took to drive home and turn on the TV it ran 100 yards to the retaining wall and houses were on fire.

 

[Jmhunt_13]

I've been under evac the last 3/4 years in nw Ca. I have 10k gal in tanks(incase well issue), backup home generator to run the well and pressure pump for house roof sprinklers and other out buildings. Resided with hardy board and have a metal roof. When a fire starts I start running the sprinklers to get everything around the property wet before hand. If possible get enough hose lay to go around your house with multiple spots to spray from. And religiously weed eat, spray, and clean up everything around that could be combustible.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jmez]

Put a metal roof on your house if you don't already have one.

 

[7mm-08]

Great suggestions, folks. Thank you all for this information. Sprinklers were an aspect I had not seriously contemplated.

 

[Jtb.kfd]

Structural FF with over 20 years experience. What has already been said is all you can realistically do. With the lack of prevention/forest management (especially in WA) these fires are only going to get worse. It has been incredible to watch the Wildland firefighting programs/agencies grow in the past 10-15 years yet with very little time money and resources being utilized in the off season for preventative measures. The folks doing forest firefighting work way harder than I do, have seasonal work and don’t get paid much. They could use these people year round and start improving the situation. With that said, lobbying your local officials to focus on off season prevention would be worth your time.

 

[JustABritCrazy]

Screen all vents, clean gutters, sprinkler systems, fire resistant roofing material., keep flammable materials as far away as possible. You can order what gear you need from Forestry Suppliers or several wildland gear companies. The sprinkler systems run off of garden hoses so you don’t need 1.5 inch or larger hoses.

 

[TaperPin]

In construction, we’ve installed all sorts of expensive new attic vents, but on an existing house simply adding fine wire mesh makes them much more ember resistant. This is a common retrofit and there should be a lot of information and materials for the purpose.

 

[BRTreedogs]

I need to address powering my well.
But I made a roof sprinkler years ago.
I bigger high flow brass slapper style.

I made a little mount out of 2x4 that matches my roof line.
I leave it on the roof all summer hooked to a hose.
First sign of trouble I let it run to pre soak and and leave at any time and let it go till power is cut.

 

[Silver Wings]

I bought this pump from Northern several years before the Creek Fire burned up to my doorstep in 2020. Honda engine coupled with a high pressure/low volume pump….not a trash pump which is the opposite. It will run two 1” lines or one 1 1/2” line well. The pump has 3” NPT inlet and discharge. This would be a good setup with your pool. I have a 3000 gallon storage tank.
If you are in a tract with the houses fairly tight I would have enough hose to get to the far side of your neighbors on either side. It would be best if you could keep fire out of them so as not to have a bigger problem with your own.
This topic could get very broad in terms of homeowner strategies, but at a minimum…
No synthetic clothing of any kind.
If you don’t have Nomex then everything cotton and layer up for insulation against radiant heat.
Most houses aren’t ignited by direct flame impingement from the front, it’s the ornamental vegetation, trash cans, lawn furniture, ect…that gets them going. Put everything that will burn in the garage and keep it closed.
Have a plan for sealing off all attic and foundation vents. I had mine cut and stored away for years. Took me only a few minutes to put them on.


My son and I
September 2020




Plywood vent covers
Everything flammable moved away from structures

 

[LeftyWilbury]

I enjoyed the write-up on Neil Desai who used a 2" hose from his pool for sprinklers and used his hot tub to mix up a batch of hydrogel to spray down another part of his house. the man had a plan. going to be lonely in the neighborhood though...

i should talk to my insurance company about how they need to get me a hot tub.

 

[NCTrees]

I’d consider having at least 5 to 10 feet of hard material between your house and the nearest landscaping. Concrete sidewalk, pavers, or rock. There have been instances with embers getting into yard thatch, igniting over time then running up and setting the house on fire. I wouldn’t have your lawn immediately adjacent to anything flammable. Even if that lawn is regularly watered, in an emergency event it’s possible for it to dry out enough when the power is off during extreme fire weather to become flammable.

 

[Alpine4x4]

We're building in a wildfire area currently. The area burned out about 15yrs ago. Luckily they were able to stop the burn right above our building location using existing logging roads.

Our plan as we build is to maintain those logging roads as a first defense line. We also are clearing all around the house and thinning the under brush. There's some leftover slash from the logging operations we will burn out of first winter up there.

Water wise the county is requiring us to have 4000gal on hand in a storage tank for them to draw from. Above that we have a 400gal water trailer with gas pump on it to wet the area. The house has an interior sprinkler system on a 300gal tank which really only gives you 10 minutes of flow, but its hooked to the well too so it can replenish. Power will be able to be backfed by a generator to keep the well running and we'll be running sprinklers into the "yard".

Construction wise we have to use fire resistant materials, vent covers, etc to not only meet code, but meet fire credits since we're in the sticks.

Hopefully if a fire does come through we can at least keep the house standing with all this.