Blog
What’s on our minds
We share what we learn and what we’re doing so that others can learn from us and we can learn from others. Comments welcome!
Community programs: Firewise and CERT
Photo by Rohini Tomar
If you want to go beyond protecting your house from wildfire, and help your community to prepare, there’s some good news.
Community organizing takes commitment and hard work. But it can be a lot of fun, and, in the case of wildfire preparedness, there’s help to be had. There may even be programs already in your community you can tap into. Two of these are Firewise and CERT.
Firewise USA
The Firewise USAⓇ program from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) helps a group of neighbors get organized and take action to protect their homes, reduce local wildfire risk, and prepare for wildfire together. The program provides a structured process and materials for the community to work through.
Participation in the program is free. Once Firewise® certified, community residents may even get a discount on their insurance!
Get your community on the path to join the 1,976 communities currently Firewise® certified! If you’re in California, check with your local Fire Safe Council, if there is one.
CERT
The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program is a federal program, promoted by FEMA, and sponsored locally, usually by a fire department or office of emergency services. CERT provides standardized training to prepare individuals to supplement local response efforts in a disaster. Training covers basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. Additionally, some CERT groups also conduct community preparedness training and projects.
Training is free. Volunteers even get a nifty hard hat, vest and backpack with supplies!
Check with your local emergency services agency to see if there’s a CERT program that can help you to get your community wildfire ready!
If you know of other programs that systematically help communities to prepare to help themselves, we would love to hear about them.
Hey, wait, what about Creative Crisis Leadership?
Thank you for asking!
We strive to prepare communities to be unprepared. Disaster rarely happens as expected. Even the best preparations miss the mark. Even the well-prepared are caught unprepared.
Our goal is to supplement community-based preparedness programs with fun and engaging immersive community learning experiences. We develop and test these learning experiences to inspire people to prepare, and foster the mindsets and skills they need to improvise when they find themselves unprepared.
To ensure that our learning experiences are relevant and meet community needs, we work with community partners, such as Firewise and CERT, throughout our process.
Please get in touch if you know of an organization or community that would like to help us to develop and test a Wildfire Learning Experience in 2022.
Share this post to help spread wildfire readiness. Make a donation to help us to do the same.
Who causes more wildfires? Humans vs Nature!
“Poster from U.S Forest Service, The National Symbols Cache”
Have you ever heard the catchphrase, “Remember… Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires”? If so, then you’re familiar with one of the longest running public service campaigns in the United States, promoting wildfire safety.
Did you know that wasn’t Smokey’s original catchphrase though? It’s also not our favorite bear’s most recent message!
20 years ago, in response to a significant outbreak of wildfires in areas other than forests, Smokey’s catchphrase was changed to: “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires,” reminding all that wildfires occur not just in forests, but everywhere.
77 years ago, Smokey had this warning for us,
“Smokey Says – Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires.”
Not as catchy, but quite alarming. Were humans really to blame for 90% of forest fires? Is that still true today?
Let’s see how our contenders face off!
Humans vs Nature!
ROUND 1
Since 2001, the National Interagency Fire Center has been compiling annual wildland fire statistics for both federal and state agencies. The data speaks for itself:
Even as recently as last year, humans were the root cause of over 90% of wildfires in the United States. That trend appears to be increasing (up 7% over 20 years). So,
Humans 1, Lighting 0
Humans vs Nature!
ROUND 2
In terms of total impact, though, who poses the bigger threat?
By acres burned on a yearly basis, this bout goes to lightning. Fires sparked by lighting burn more area on average than wildfires started by humans. This is due to most human caused fires starting in the Wildland Urban Interface (WBI), a zone of land defined as “area or zone where structures and other human development meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuels”.
Wildfires that start here cause a bigger threat, but are more easily reached by firefighters.
Looking at the cumulative growth of acres burned over time, we can see that fires started by lightning have burned a greater area than fires caused by humans:
So,
Humans 1, Lightning 1
Humans vs Nature!
ROUND 3
So if humans cause roughly 9 out of 10 wildfires, but more acres have burned due to lightning, who is the real winner of the match?
A study published in 2020 analyzed over 1.6 million wildfires between the years 1992 and 2015, and found that “Human-caused wildfires accounted for 97% of the residential homes threatened (within 1 km of a wildfire) and nearly a third of suppression costs.”
In 2020, researchers at the University of California Irvine found that “large human-caused fires have a significantly larger impact on the ecosystems when compared to lightning-caused fires.” They concluded that the faster the fire spread, the more damage was done to the local ecosystem, and fires started by humans generally grow faster.
So,
Humans 2, Lightning 1
Unfortunately, humans win.
Personally, I think it’s time to bring back a slightly modified version of Smokey’s original catchphrase,
“Smokey Says – We CAN Prevent 9 out of 10 Wildfires”
Share this post to help spread wildfire readiness. Make a donation to help us to do the same.
Do not hesitate, evacuate early!
DarrenRD, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Landscape_view_of_wildfire_near_Highway_63_in_south_Fort_McMurray.jpg)
“With the fires, my job was to leave.”
So says Barbara, who had to evacuate in the face of the Santa Cruz fires. Outside of the very real trauma of potentially losing her home, she found that evacuation was “smooth and easy.” No traffic. No rushing. And no anxiety of getting caught by the fire. Why? Because she didn’t wait for an evacuation order. She evacuated early.
Why should you evacuate early?
According to the Fire Safe Marin Evacuation Guide:
“Leave immediately if you receive a notification or alert to avoid being caught in fire, smoke, or road congestion. Don’t wait to be ordered by authorities to leave if you are unsure, feel threatened, or lose power or communications. Law enforcement will direct the evacuation and they will keep intersections open and moving, but their resources may be limited. Evacuating early (before evacuation is ordered) helps keep roads clear of congestion, and lets fire apparatus move more freely to do their job. If you are advised to leave, do not hesitate!”
The dangers of road congestion can not be over-stressed. RebuildSoCal.org, citing a 2020 University of California (UC) report on wildfire evacuations, states that “most evacuees experienced significant congestion along their evacuation routes.” In the case of the Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise CA,
“that event illuminated the grim reality that many road systems throughout the state are not designed to handle a sudden emergency evacuation. … and Paradise is not unique in that regard. A USA Today analysis of populations, fire risk zones and roadways showed that one out of every 100 ZIP codes in California has a population-to-evacuation-route ratio that is near to or worse than that of Paradise.”
So, just leave.
Share this post to help spread wildfire readiness. Make a donation to help us to do the same.
How do you fight a wildfire?
Photo by Leanne Clement
Fighting a wildfire is not like fighting a house fire.
When a house is on fire, the goal is to put the fire out as quickly as possible. This is mostly accomplished by pouring water on the flames, depriving it of oxygen and reducing the temperature of combustibles.
When a forest is on fire, the goal is to contain it, and allow it to burn itself out. This is done by removing fuel from a path all around the fire, known as the “containment line.”
The two types of firefighting thus attack different components of the so-called “fire triangle”:
The containment line is built piecemeal from individual stretches of “firelines” that gradually connect up to form a fuel-free perimeter around the fire.
Firelines are created in a variety of ways. “Hand lines” are created by specially trained crews that physically remove wide paths of flammable materials, stripping the surface down to bare dirt. Other firelines may be created by dropping long swathes of flame retardant by aircraft. Backfires may be set between the actual fire and the fireline to preemptively burn any fuel in that area in a controlled manner.
Once a fireline has been established, less trained personnel are needed to “hold it,” preventing the fire from breaking through. They will monitor fire activity, and put out any spot fires that may start from embers crossing the line. Aerial crews may drop water on flames to help prevent the fire from spreading in selected directions.
Deciding where to place firelines, and where to establish the containment line, is a very difficult task that requires predicting where the fire will go. Fire behavior depends on a number of factors, including the type of fuel available, how wet the fuel is, how hot it is, what the wind is doing, and the slope of the terrain.
On top of which, a large wildfire can create its own weather patterns.
Crew safety must be considered at all times, ensuring that personnel working on the ground have escape routes should the fire change direction or pick up speed. A wildfire can move up to 7 mph in wooded areas and up to 14 mph on grasslands without getting tired!
Needless to say, fireline placement takes advantage of natural fuel breaks such as roads, streams, and ridges. Artificial fuel breaks may have been created well before a fire starts as part of fire mitigation measures.
Finally, when the fire is contained, mop up crews put out residual fires along the fire perimeter to ensure that the fire doesn’t blow up again outside the containment area, even during high wind events.
So, fighting a wildfire is not like fighting a house fire. Except, of course, when the wildfire threatens homes and other structures.
Then firefighters have to switch from containment to suppression tactics.
Watch this video for more detail on wildfire firefighting.
Share this post to help spread wildfire readiness. Make a donation to help us to do the same.
Don’t drone near a wildfire
Drones can be a valuable tool for gathering information and learning about what’s going on in a disaster area. They can also make matters worse.
When it comes to fighting wildfires, aircraft are used to drop fire retardant and water, monitor fire conditions, and provide tactical information to firefighters. Unauthorized drone flights near a wildfire pose a danger of collision with firefighting aircraft. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, drone “incursions” stopped aerial firefighting efforts 17 times in 2021 (as of Oct 18), and 41 times in 2016:
This not only puts lives at risk, but is a federal crime. Per the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, 43 CFR § 9212.1, it is “prohibited on public lands to … (f) Resist or interfere with the efforts of firefighter(s) to extinguish a fire.” It may also violate FAA regulations, as the airspace over a wildfire is often subject to temporary closure.
Read this article for more on the challenges of unauthorized drones in disaster areas. Learn more about flying drones near wildfires here.
Share this post to help spread wildfire readiness. Make a donation to help us to do the same.