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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!
Change the odds, save your house
Screenshot of homes–some burned, some not–in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STTZX2Gt_Pw
Why do some homes burn and some don’t, when wildfires burn through inhabited neighborhoods?
In this 10-minute video, Glass Fire Post Fire Analysis – For Residents, a fire chief leads an educational tour through a neighborhood that was ravaged by the Glass Fire of 2020. He shows houses — literally next to each other — one burned, one not, and discusses why.
“I really believe that if people had done their home hardening, and Zone 0 defensible space work, those homes would have survived. If they didn’t have flammable material within the 3-5 feet of space, if they blocked their eaves, or they had improved vents so fire could not get in their attic. I firmly believe they would have survived this fire.”
The takeaway: We cannot control a wildfire coming our way, but we can reduce the odds that our homes will burn.
Here are some highlights from the video:
- Protect your attic! Embers getting into the attics is the major culprit. “From what I see, every one of them burned from the attic down.”
- Consider your Zone 0 defensible space (0-5 feet from the structure). The video shows a scorched house literally next to an untouched house. The scorched house had flammable wood chips around it, the untouched had non-flammable cedar chips.
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“My God, it’s so simple!”
Photo by Tengyart on Unsplash
“My God, it’s so simple, … to prepare for this. It’s basically being sure your roof and your gutters are clear. And that you’ve raked … a walkway, … around the house that doesn’t have combustible material. … because they [the fire department] explained that what happens is embers fall and you don’t want them to be able to fall into duff. So you clear the duff.”
(Barbara Sprenger, in conversation with Susanne and Garett, Sept 2021).
Preparing your house for wildfire is called, “house hardening.” Many people are intimidated by this term, feeling that there is much to do and doing it is difficult.
However, as Barbara says, it really isn’t that hard. Basically, you want to ensure that a few embers won’t light your house on fire.
As Barbara says,
- Keep roof and gutters clear so embers won’t catch
- Keep combustible materials away from the house, so fire cannot “walk” up to your home.
- Cover attic vents with metal mesh, so embers cannot get inside.
CalFire’s ReadyForWildfire site has a large set of measures to harden (prepare) your home to help increase its likelihood of survival when wildfire strikes: https://www.readyforwildfire.org/prepare-for-wildfire/get-ready/hardening-your-home/
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Don’t inhale!
Photo by Susanne Jul
A few months ago, we were swimming in smoke.
Well, not me. I stop outdoor exercise when wildfire smoke pushes the Air Quality Index (AQI) above 125. Even though that’s below the 150 “Unhealthy” rating.
You see, AQI only measures five major pollutants: Ground-level ozone, particulate matter (including PM2.5 and PM10), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. It doesn’t take into account all the other nasties that wildfire puts into the air, such as lead, zinc, calcium, iron and manganese.
Think, “Oh, yummm, I love that smell of burning wood. Especially when it’s mixed with burning cars, creosote/arsenic/penta-treated utility poles, and lots of plastic toys!”
A proper mask will filter out particulate matter. Which is the biggest threat to your health. But it won’t do anything about the nasty toxic gases. And it has to fit tightly — no cheating air sneaking in around the edges. And it has to be N95-grade (or “NIOSH-approved N95 Particulate Filtering Facepiece Respirator”) — a cowboy bandanna or triple-layer cotton COVID mask helps but won’t do it.
Read about wildfire smoke and public health in The Wildfire Smoke Guide for Public Health Officials.
Wildfire, it affects EVERYONE
Photo by Matthew Abbot, NY Times Contributor
Wildfires affect EVERYONE.
This statement might seem extreme. Especially, if you live in a city — far from trees, or much of anything flammable really that you can see.
It isn’t.
Burning biomass contributes significantly to climate change, and wildfires burn a lot of biomass!
As part of the Climate Science Initiative (a project that came from the Paris Agreement), a team of scientists at the European Space Agency analyzed 30 years of geographic data from the satellite Sentinel 3. The number they found is hard to grasp:
4,590,000 km²
If you’re unfamiliar with metric measures —it’s ok, I had to look it up myself —that’s
1,772,209 mi²
That is the average area estimated to have burned on our planet per year between 1982 and 2018. To put it another way: On average, an area the size of half of the United States (excluding bodies of water) burned every year.
Evidence strongly suggests that climate change is exacerbating the danger of wildfires. In the state of California, research has shown that the danger of wildfires has increased 5x since the 1970s.
Since the publication of that research, California has had even bigger wildfires. 9 of the 10 largest fires in California have burned in the last 4 years. (2017-2021), 6 of those in just the last 2 years:
Australia experienced a new high record temperature of 41.9°c (107.4°F) in January 2020. Just two months later, by March 9, more than 46 million acres had burned (184,000 km²), killing at least 34 people, destroying 2,779 homes, and causing several endangered species to be re-categorized as extinct. While the size of the fires was not unprecedented in Australian history, New South Wales had never experienced wildfire like this.
Our planet is warming up. As it does, fires will also grow. Wildfires are burning larger areas, increasingly including urban populations.
Affecting everyone.
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Fire Tornadoes
Screenshot of a fire tornado from https://www.wired.com/video/watch/extreme-events-fire-tornado
This video will give you a new respect and awe for the power of nature: https://www.wired.com/video/watch/extreme-events-fire-tornado
Fortunately, these extreme phenomena are not something to worry about in our everyday lives. “True fire tornadoes have only been documented now twice [as of 2019 when this video was made]. Once in Redding, California during the Carr Fire, and once in Canberra, Australia during 2003.“
Imagine a wildfire so large that it creates a tornado filled with fire. This is not the same as a fire whirl, which is small and short-lived. “Fire tornadoes and fire whirls both start with strong updrafts from the fire, and strong inflows related to the fire itself, but fire tornadoes get even bigger because the fire is actually initiating its own weather system.” Wow.
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