George Rebane
This concludes the series on wildfires that started with Part I: Our House Burns and continued in Part II: Our House is Still There!.
During the hours we spent with the fire crews who were sheltered in our house, we learned a lot about the nature of wild fires and how they could and could not be successfully defended against. Jo Ann and I were the only civilians within a circle of ten or twelve firefighters gathered around the breakfast table and adjoining family room. There were no reporters, everyone could talk freely, political considerations were the furthest from everyone’s mind. Our main concerns at this point were 1) had we prepared properly, and 2) what else could we have done or now do to prepare for the future?
We were told straight out that the ‘future’ we were concerned about was about eight years away given how thoroughly the vegetation around our neighborhood and nearby mountains had burned. But there were some important insights which the fire fighters led by their captains laid down for us. These formed our lessons learned – some corroborated our thirty-plus years of experience watching and studying southern California wildfires; and some points made came as a complete surprise. I will list them with comments as appropriate.
1. SoCal fires are the biggest anywhere, Australia may be the closest competitor. I will use the term ‘real wildfire’ to describe conflagrations that have a base of an acre or more and swirling flames reaching much higher than a hundred feet into the air. These inverse tornadoes of flame and super-heated air are difficult to describe to anyone not having witnessed them. I am told they rarely occur in northern California, but are common every year when soCal burns. A real wildfire will feel uncomfortable on your exposed face when you’re a quarter mile away. And at that distance if you get caught in a laminate (layer separated from the ground) of wind-driven, super-heated air, you may die if you happen to breathe in.
2. Big hot, wind-driven fires do not travel contiguously, they can jump hundreds of yards without burning intervening vegetation. Fed by sparks, cinders, and super-heated layers of air they can start a new fire across very wide cleared areas. soCal mountain firebreaks seldom work, and when they do, it is because they are at the tops of sharp ridges that lifts the super-heated air above the fuel on the other side.
3. Houses with Class A roofs start burning under the eaves where super-heated air concentrates. Cinders and sparks can also ignite a house if they are blown into crevices such as formed by flashing over stucco or siding.
4. Clearing is less important than having irrigated/watered vegetation surrounding the house. (In soCal shrubs and flowers frequently touch the building itself) We had three rows of mature euks within fifty feet of the house. A small (1acre) meadow was on the other side. These trees were limbed up to about four to five feet. Firefighters credited these windbreak trees with shielding us from the sparks and cinders that blew in from across the meadow as our northern neighbor’s house burned down. The same credit was given to the poplars that were about 40 feet west of the house shielding us from that neighbor’s holocaust. But in November 1961, I and hundreds of other UCLA students watched the Brentwood Bel-Air fire from the top of Janss Steps on campus. Looking toward the mountains we saw house after beautiful house on two ridges explode in flames without the intervening vegetation burning first. It was the super-heated air blown by the Santa Anas combined with the shake roofs, popular at the time, and open eaves that did the job.
5. The fire-resistant house should be built with no eaves or eaves that are enclosed in a fire-proof material (e.g. stucco). The roof should, of course, be a Class A, and a light-colored or fire-proof siding will help. Our white stucco house had a Class A roof and was purposely designed with no eaves. This was the major factor credited with saving the house. If the flashing had been tighter on the side of the chaparral firestorm, the house would have suffered almost no damage at all except for the partial burning of the wooden deck railings.
6. When a real fire (soCal firestorm or norCal crown fire in a forested area) comes, there will be no firefighters there to protect your house. They will be hightailing it with everyone else. If you live in a heavy brush or forested area, clearing a hundred foot perimeter will do little to protect your house. The house will have to protect itself.
7. For survival during a real wildfire, evacuation is the only alternative. Having a known and accessible evacuation route is critical. In Nevada County, having evacuation routes that lead to safe assembly areas is a requirement for those who live in forested areas too far from open country. In open, low altitude west county this is less of a problem. Also, have a plan of who does what when they’re either at home or away when the fire comes. This will keep family and friends from unnecessary worry, attempts at communication, and unwise actions during the emergency. Our friends and kids knew we were savvy and prepared. No one did anything dumb (except possibly my wild drive up PCH from Santa Monica to our house).
8. Early warning is most critical when there are a few evacuation routes for many families most of whom will be taking part in their first emergency evacuation. Talk about or, better, make a list about what you will pack into what vehicle or trailer before you evacuate. Coming up with a workable loading plan in a panic is not a good idea. Remember to take needed meds, orthopedic devices, glasses, etc for family members not there when you pack.
9. Storing important papers/documents off site is recommended. Every fall we assembled a row of five or six cardboard book boxes by the back door filled with important papers, photo albums. These stayed there for about two months until the first couple of inches of rain fell.
10. Leave the house ready to receive firefighters. All doors closed but unlocked. Gas and oil valves turned off. Main circuit breakers (electricity) off. All gasoline, paint, thinners, ammunition, etc. piled visibly in a clear area away from the house. Leave buckets full of water, soaking piles of towels, along with any shovels in visible places around the house. (A full pool or spa will be best.) The firefighters will know how to use them for everything from putting out spot fires to shielding their hoses as they drag them over shattered window sills. Yes, when possible, they will fight your house fire from inside out. This reduces water damage and also shields the fire fighters.
11. If push comes to shove, leave the critters. If you get heroic and start risking your life for a critter, consider that a firefighter with a family who sees or knows about your attempted heroics may well decide to risk his/her life to try to save you. Your critters ain’t worth it.
12. Finally, check your insurance policy. No matter if your house burns down or you just suffer damage, having an insurance company that is reputable with a demonstrated capability in Nevada County is important. When it’s over, a good insurance company is a godsend to put your life back together again. (We have had USAA for over forty-five years and cannot praise them enough.)
Finally, our forthright firefighters all said that fuel reduction in remote areas is the most effective defense against wildfire catastrophes. In soCal we had way too few ‘prescribed burns’ to purposely reduce the humongous fuel loads of tinder dry chaparral covering every mountain side. Every time the fire districts wanted to burn, they were dissuaded by mentally challenged homeowners who would complain to their elected officials of smelly smoke or the risk of having their houses burn. These idiots never got it through their head that the fire will definitely come some day soon. Their only choices were 1) to have the burn when everyone was ready on a cloudy, calm, moist day with lots of fire engines around, or 2) when it was tinder dry and the Santa Ana winds were howling and firefighters were already busy fighting other fires. Instead, these people would always fast draw their lawyers and file suit to stop sanity.
We in Nevada County should not be so stupid and, instead, work with our fire districts to support fuel reduction efforts. These mountains have never seen the forest densities and undergrowth we have artificially brought about over the last 150 years. All this has resulted through applying our fine fire fighting technologies and preventing reasonable logging in the urban interface areas. For historical pictures of more sustainable and survivable forests, and more water in our wells and rivers, the reader is referred to the pictorial study documented in Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests – A Photographic Interpretation of Ecological Change Since 1849 by George F. Gruell.
When all is said and done, Jo Ann said it best, “If your house is going to burn, it will burn.” This stoic que sera sera attitude should be a necessary ingredient in the make-up of all who insist on living in the beauty and quietude of lands that almost always are periodically purged by wildfires. The risk of your home burning is the price paid for that, and we should not seek to change the character of our chosen hideaways by unreasonably insisting that they be made as safe and convenient as the city streets from which we sought respite.
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