Lessons from a wildfire

[JFK]

If you hear about fellow American’s house burning down and immediately launch into a political tirade or shit eating grin comments on the internet, pat yourself on the back….you are not a good person.

 

[WeiserBucks]

How many billions of emergency funds will Biden send CA before he leaves office?

Less than Ukraine, ask folks who got burnt out on Maui

 

[Forestryguy]

I have done structural fire, wildfire, and control burning, and I was a forester. As has been said, this intense fire is not defensible. Air attack was grounded due to winds and took a big asset away. You will not fight a rolling urban fire in mansions and industries.

It will be interesting to see what new management of natural lands comes from this. Big money and cities getting decimated catch the ears of lawmakers at all levels. Maybe they will take more land management practices away from the ballot boxes and into the hands of people who know what needs to be done and how to do it. The forestry community has been saying things like this would be happening 30 years ago. More thinning of forests and the removal of thick understories are needed, along with more frequent controlled burns. The politicians also need to come to the reality (at all levels, nationwide, and parties) that they are experts of nothing and need to listen to people who know more than they do.

I am fairly certain one thing that will come out of this is more training for urban departments to know how to pump water and use pumpers for relays. The NorthEast coast had the same issues during one of the few hurricanes that hit there. They were flooded with buildings on fire but did not know how to draft from the flood waters. They were also worried about ruining pumps on trucks. That did not matter since the trucks technically were flooded and the city would be getting money to replace them.

Individually, people need to make their homes more defensible. They also need to really have go-bags ready to go and get out of town before things get really bad and end up stuck on the roads. Guess the prepper mentality is not always a bad thing, after all.

 

[survivalistd]

My mandatory evacuation was just lifted and electricity is back on. Woohoo no more generator noise.

 

[Weldor]

I’m on the fence of wanting to go down there due to the pure chaos fighting fire in So Cal brings. Seems the media has more rights than fire personnel down there. My gear is packed and in the truck regardless.

The amount of politics over these fires is unreal. Elected presidents Musk and Trump can’t seem to grasp simple things about firefighting and really aren’t supporting the cause. You cannot stop a fire in the caliber of these winds until they die down. I know a few dozen folks on the frontlines currently and have seen footage from their eyes and wonder how some can be on hotshot crews down there. Homes are so closely stacked together in those subdvisions that you can hear your neighbor a few doors down fart.

Insurance companies not only in California, but Idaho and Montana as well are dropping clients like flies that don’t have defensible space around their houses.


No matter where you live, it’s the homeowners responsibility to be fire wise. Clear your brush and burn it during a good time of year, burn your property every few years with advice/help of the local state office or Fire Department, and possibly have a plan with sprinkler lays you can deploy before you, loved ones, or neighbors evacuate. At the very least if you have a water source the fire crews can throw a high pressure pump into, that’s a plus, If you’re place isn’t defensible and your neighbors place is, I’m going to focus on saving your neighbors first.

Easy to say, I live in the high desert and mountain plain. My neighbors have grass and mesquite everywhere. The insurance companies came through after the fire in 2020. All they did was drop poliices. people just had to pay more simple. My place in the tonto is the same. I love when you guys use the word defensible all while riding around and watching houses burn. I keep 44000 gallons of water on hand and pumps plus my loader. I'll take care of my own thanks. In 2020 when the fires were at our door step the FS ask if they could park in my pasture to watch. Really.

 

[1jeds]

If you hear about fellow American’s house burning down and immediately launch into a political tirade or shit eating grin comments on the internet, pat yourself on the back….you are not a good person.

This was my thought exactly. We're so polarized these days that peoples houses can burn down and they lose everything, but immediately point to their political views, how much money they have, or worry about them moving to "our" states. I dislike transplants as well, but there's a time and place. We've lost any sort of nuance.

 

[Hoodie]

It's gonna be a long term process to adapt. Ignition resistant structures and smart landscaping are critical for these fire prone areas. The vast majority of home ignitions during events like this are from embers, not flames. Big, wind driven fires in forests where the natural fuel loads are extremely high will push embers miles ahead of the flaming front. We saw that in Oregon in 2020. And once the first structures ignite, they become the problem fuel not the trees. Structure to structure ignitions are what you generally see.

I've probably removed 1000 or more trees in the last 3 years in the name of wildfire mitigation, but forest management will only get you so far with 70mph winds. I've walked miles and miles of old growth Doug-fir stands that had minimal ladder fuels with near 100% tree mortality from Oregon's 2020 fires. That kind of wind will keep a crown fire rolling even when the forest looks well manicured.

Gotta think about the structures as much or more than the surrounding vegetation.

And "defensible space" is a poor term. It implies that there will be a human being with a hose pipe defending a structure. The best play is to try to create circumstances where the structure has a chance even if no one's available, because that's a way more likely scenario.

 

[Loo.wii]

Watching what is happening in LA scares the living shit out of me as I watch the Boise foothills in town and also up 55 get filled up with houses. We can only build so much, take/divert so much water out of the system of a drying environment before we follow suit.

Last year the fires got damn close - next year? Who knows.

It was weird realizing that everywhere I’ve lived outside of Florida houses are built out of wood instead of concrete block.
I get there’s an economic and engineering aspect that I’m probably in aware of but it would make sense to transition to concrete block houses instead of houses built of matches.

 

[Alpine4x4]

It's gonna be a long term process to adapt. Ignition resistant structures and smart landscaping are critical for these fire prone areas. The vast majority of home ignitions during events like this are from embers, not flames. Big, wind driven fires in forests where the natural fuel loads are extremely high will push embers miles ahead of the flaming front. We saw that in Oregon in 2020. And once the first structures ignite, they become the problem fuel not the trees. Structure to structure ignitions are what you generally see.

I've probably removed 1000 or more trees in the last 3 years in the name of wildfire mitigation, but forest management will only get you so far with 70mph winds. I've walked miles and miles of old growth Doug-fir stands that had minimal ladder fuels with near 100% tree mortality from Oregon's 2020 fires. That kind of wind will keep a crown fire rolling even when the forest looks well manicured.

Gotta think about the structures as much or more than the surrounding vegetation.

And "defensible space" is a poor term. It implies that there will be a human being with a hose pipe defending a structure. The best play is to try to create circumstances where the structure has a chance even if no one's available, because that's a way more likely scenario.

Not sure about your local, but around here structure protection is of top priority in wildfires, especially since the main play lately is to just let them burn. Living in the foothills of the cascades there is almost a zero chance of having a structure survive a moving wildfire without personnel present. The only homes with that chance are outside the timber, once you're in the timber the thermals and topography make it impossible. A full concrete structure with a metal roof would be the only play and even then...

It's honestly just a risk you take living in nature. A fire is going to do what a fire does. You make as many plays as you can to beat the odds and hope you don't get into a worst case scenario like what just happened in California.