Strategies for those in fire country? Building and landscaping modifications?

[KYErik]

Its really sad to see all of the destruction/loss of life in California. Maybe some of you live close to or even IN those danger zones.

I know that floating embers are a huge concern. Do home modifications help? Things like metal roofs and siding that is stucco, brick or metal? Maybe tight fitting metal shutters for all widows, doors and attic vents (to keep out burning embers)? Metal gutters soffit and fascia. Metal plumbing vent covers.

If none of these things help- how about Underground houses with a metal roof?

I suppose a good test would be to look at the structures that do survive- Do fully enclosed metal sided/roofed pole buildings with no exposed wood survive these "brushy" fires?

For those of you living in a fire area, if a big fire was projected to hit your property in 48 hours, would you consider quickly cutting all the trees in your "yard" and pushing them to the side of your property that is downwind of your house (or at least getting them down on the ground)? Brush hogging all of your landscaping plants around the edge of your house and using a FEL to back drag them away from the house?

If your back yard is public land, what might be the penalty for trying to clear trees/brush as far out as possible from your house as time permits before a fire arrives?

Of course, you still want to give yourself plenty of time to evacuate safely...

Here in the midwest, some people have a buried tornado shelter in their yard. Would a buried concrete room with no buildings/trees nearby work as a fire shelter? I assume there would be enough oxygen to breath if the fire has enough O2 to burn.

 

[plowhog]

I commented to my wife last night that we need an updated evacuation plan. There are limited roads to our rural property. If a fire broke out and blocked the main road, it would be very difficult to flee. So first order of business for us is to examine escape routes.

We did remove all juniper bushes and shrubs last year. Those are very fire-dangerous. They have an oil in them that makes them burn especially hot.

You have some legitimate questions and ideas, but I don't think emergency tree-cutting and stacking them downwind would help. Most people around here would kill themselves in the tree falling operation. And "downwind" can change instantly when a fire starts creating its own wind patterns and weather.

My insurance company long ago told me to replace all shake roofs on properties with something non-combustible, like composition, or they would cancel insurance.

 

[Diggin It]

I'm not really in that kind of a danger area, but it is rural and we do have field fires. I keep nearly everything taller than the house well back away. A dozen or so trees and shrubs are trimmed to 10' or less mostly for falling hazards in wind storms. But if it came down to it and I had time, I could cut them all off at the ground and push them away in a matter of a couple of hours.

I have a metal roof over part of the house, but not all. The rest is planned for next spring before it gets hot again. Siding is vinyl though.

 

[Ortimber]

Great thread! I live in a very high fire danger region. I don't believe there is any way we could save our house if a fire was to break out below us. We are completely surrounded by trees on both public land as well as private timber company property. During the dry months, I leave my dozer parked near our house, full of fuel and ready to go. I also have 20,000 gallons of stored water connected to a pump and 300ft of fire hose. A small grass fire might be manageable by me, but anything that gets into the trees is probably not worth trying to fight. Grab a few personal items and bug out. It sucks, but that's the reality for us.

 

[EddieWalker]

A few years ago we had a really hot and dry summer that led to a lot of fires happening all over Texas. In my area, several where started by sparks from trailers being towed after their tires had fallen off, smokers tossing cigarettes, fireworks being set off illegally and people burning garbage and losing control of the fire. First thing that I did was to mow everything down as short as possible and then scrape off all vegetation from my roads to create fire breaks. Along the highway, I also disked the soil to hopefully catch anything that might be floating along at ground level and maybe catch it in the uneven soil. Not sure if that was possible, but it did make me feel better doing it.

Back in the 80's a good buddy of mine was going to college for a degree in forestry and he had to volunteer to clean up the under story in California during the summer, and create fire breaks. I helped him do this on his families land in Pleasanton CA. Once we got ahead of it, the following years it was pretty easy to keep things cleared. The Park owned land next to him and they would run a disk along their fence lines and have people out there to do the same thing until the state ended all that in the mid 90's. That's really when we started focusing on doing it more on my friends land because of the fear of what might happen on the public land that was no longer being taken care of.

My long term goal is to remove every tree 50 feet from my fence line and keep it cut short. Short grass doesn't burn as good as long grass. Then if we get into another situation that is ideal for fires to happen, I'll scrape it and disk it to make it all dirt.

As for my house, if a fire happened tomorrow, we don't have a plan on what to save, or where to put anything. My long term plan is to build a Tornado shelter with a fireproof gun safe type door to it that we will keep all our important papers and back up disks for our computers. Then if something happens, we should be able to get away to safety and still have what's in there after the house burns down. At least that's our hope. I have the plans for the room, and the area set aside to put it, but haven't actually committed to starting it until I finish a few other projects. Probably needs to be done sooner rather then later.

 

[RNeumann]

Three major things determine house survivability. Construction type, defensible space and lastly access.

Exposed eves, plastic or wood siding, and wood roofs are all bad.

Defensible space includes clearing vegetation, cleaning gutters, moving firewood and eliminating other buildings or junk from around the structure.

Access is key IF firefighters are in your area. You want a big driveway with a nice turn a round. Make sure you have plenty of water and an easy way for firefighters to access it. If one engine is assigned to say 5 house you want them sitting at your house!! Locked gates etc is all it would take for an engine to pass your place- make sure it’s open before you go.

 

[Locoweed]

Contact your local fire dept. & ask them to do a evaluation of your property.

 

[plowhog]

AAlong the highway, I also disked the soil

My neighbor mentioned doing this recently along the road next to our property. I will probably start doing that next Spring.

 

[orezok]

I live in the desert which is also fire prone. I cleared a 40 to 50 foot wide fire break of all vegetation on the north and west side of my 26 acres as that is the prevailing wind direction. The south and east side have existing dirt roads that I also keep a wide area clear of vegitation.

Around the house and barn I have a 100 foot clear area with few trees and bushes. Fortunately, the closest fire station is only a little over a mile from me.

I also brought in a 2 inch water lateral and have an inch and a half fire riser connection in the back yard plus a couple of hundred feet of fire hose. The house has a concrete tile roof and stucco walls. Building code here does not allow eave vents only gable vents which I have covers for.

We also recently did a bug out preparation, placing all valuable documents in a small fire safe near the back door. If there are high winds which is common here, we would just grab the safe and go. Let the fire fighting to the professionals.

Thats about the best that I can do.

 

[ultrarunner]

A couple of thoughts both from my time in California and Austria...

California makes it very hard to thin or disturb vegetation... it has become so restrictive I know those that will let a tree fall down rather than take a permit with public hearing/comment to remove.

Also... discing and tilling can be verboten... hand trimming or mowing is generally ok...

There are companies that market residential foam systems that are very effective if properly deployed... masonry construction is also very very good when it comes to fire but comes at a cost for materials and seismic engineering here.

I have been reprimanded for maintaining fire breaks... fire breaks I am required to have but the minute someone sees a dozer... calls start going to the city and police...

I never leave around the 4th of July... fireworks are banned but for days it is like a war zone... hot and dry with days of fireworks.