Posts Tagged: Wildfire

Lake Tahoe declares its own wildfire awareness week

The "official" Wildfire Awareness Week falls in May, but this year the Lake Tahoe community marks the event in July, according to a story in the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

UC Cooperative Extension natural resources advisor Susie Kocher told the newspaper that participation in the statewide springtime event has been low in the Tahoe Basin because many second-home owners are only there in the summer.

Because of the low participation rates, fire professionals, the Nevada Fire Safe Council, University of Nevada and University of California Cooperative Extension programs and other organizations created their own week-long event to promote wildfire and ember awareness.

“The event is being held to encourage all Lake Tahoe Basin residents to ‘Be Ember Prepared' and help protect their homes and communities from the embers that cause destruction of many homes during wildfires,” Kocher was quoted.

The article says a capstone event will be a wildfire summit on July 9 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Harvey's Casino. More information and the complete schedule of events are available on the Living with Fire website.

Lake Tahoe Basin Wildfire Awareness Week.

Chronicle op-ed questions fire prevention tactics

Stripping plants from swaths of land to create fire breaks may not be the best way to prevent wildfire damage, according to an op-ed article published in the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday. Writer Ben Preston said the long-practiced fire management strategy opens space for invasive weed invasion, which could burn even hotter.

Research by fire scientists at universities all over the Western United States has found that, despite extensive efforts to prevent large fires with prescribed burns and brush removal, fires continue to be a regular occurrence. And modifying the landscape, research indicates, has unintended impacts.

UC Berkeley wildfire researcher Max Moritz told the writer that in Nothern California, scotch broom, pampas grass and other more flammable nonnatives tend to move into cleared areas where some variety of chaparral once stood.

Preston suggests the best fire management alternatives are:

• Creating defensible space around homes and other buildings. UC Cooperative Extension has a publication, Home Landscaping for Fire, with guidelines for creating defensible space that doesn't suggest eliminating all plants on the land.
• Investing in roof sprinklers and fire-retardant gels.
• Organizing citizen emergency response teams to deal with spot fires.

For more information, see UC's two-page publication Invasive Plants and Wildfires in Southern California.

Wildfire threatening a California subdivision.

Modifying the lay of the land for fire resistence

Creating defensible space around woodland homes is a legal requirement and common-sense habit. UC Cooperative Extension has developed extensive information that will help homeowners maximize safety while maintaining the greenery that makes rural living desirable, according to an article in the Redding Record Searchlight.

Defensible space, yes, but UC Cooperative Extension forestry advisor Gary Nakamura told reporter Laura Christman, "It doesn't mean you need to nuke the site and clear it."

Bare dirt would be the ultimate in fire defense, but such a landscape comes up short in appearance, erosion control and wildlife habitat. Besides, Nakamura said, many homes that succumb to wildland fire are ignited by embers that drifted a long way from the fire line.

"It's usually not this wall of wildfire coming to the house. That's people's cartoon vision of what happens," Nakamura was quoted.

The strategy of defensible space is to have an area around the house where embers are less likely to ignite plants or structures. Or, if an ember does start a fire, the fire will smolder or burn slowly so it can be extinguished. Homeowners need to create conditions so that firefighters can "safely get in there and fight the fire," Nakamura advised.

The story noted that UC's Home Landscaping for Fire publication recommends thinning brush and trees 70 feet beyond the "lean and green zone," a 30-foot band around the home. Trees shouldn't have limbs any closer than 10 feet from each other and spacing should be farther on hillsides, where fire picks up speed and intensity.

UC has collected research-based information about protecting homes from fire in a wildfire online media kit. The resource contains links to stories, video and UC Web sites dedicated to helping Californians minimize fire damage and stay safe.

One of many UC publications on wildfire resistence.

Chron helps distribute UC fire information

The Sweat Equity column in the San Francisco Chronicle today steered readers to a UC PowerPoint presentation on the Web that provides details on fire-resistance ratings for roofs.

Produced by UC Cooperative Extension wood durability advisor Steven Quarles, the 18-slide presentation gives viewers an understanding of how roof coverings get their fire rating.

The information in Sweat Equity, a regular home improvement column written by brothers Bill and Kevin Burnett, was prompted by a reader question about whether an existing shake roof can be treated for improved fire resistance. In short, the answer is no.

Roofing systems are fire-rated either A, B, C or not ratable, with A the highest rating, or most fire resistant, according to the article.

If homeowners wish to preserve the woodsy and casual appearance of a wood shake roof, the Burnetts said the existing shakes should be replaced with new fire-retardant pressure-treated wood shakes. Alone, the pressure-treated shakes result in a class-B roof covering; in conjunction with an underlying fire barrier material, such as this gypsum or fiberglass, the roof is class A.

For more information on improving homes' fire resistance, see Quarles' Homeowners Wildfire Mitigation Guide online.

When new, an asphalt composition roof has a class A rating.

Early wildfire detection may forestall damage

It may seem like a wildfire would be easy to detect, but vast, rugged wilderness can permit a small blaze to develop into a firestorm before firefighters are deployed.

Reeling from the enormous losses sustained by last year's devastating Station Fire in Los Angeles County -- which took two firefighters' lives, destroyed dozens of structures and cost more than $95 million to fight -- Supervisor Mike Antonovich is asking the county to allocate money to study a high-tech early detection system.

"The Station fire graphically spotlights the need to study and identify solutions for establishing an automated early detection system," Antonovich said in his motion to allocate the funding, according to the Los Angeles Times. "The goal of a technology-based system would be to . . . have a programmed airborne response within minutes to suppress the fire before it spreads."

Times reporter Tony Barboza spoke to UC Berkeley fire scientist Max Moritz, who threw water on the idea.

"Does the technology even exist to do this kind of thing?" the story quoted Moritz, who is also co-director of UC Berkeley's Center for Fire Research and Outreach. "I think that's an open question."

Moritz said officials are already able to detect wildfire early under mild conditions.

"But under the conditions we're most worried about -- Santa Ana winds, for instance -- it's not clear that we'd be able to get airborne resources deployed within minutes," Moritz was quoted.

UC Berkeley and UC Cooperative Extension maintain a wide variety of programs aimed at understanding California wildfire and how losses from wildfire can be minimized. Articles, links, and video are available in the online wildfire media kit.

Max Moritz

Read more