Fire, Fire, Everywhere!
May 27, 2011
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 6-8 weeks, you all know by now that the state of Texas is on fire! Fire conditions in west and central Texas are at the worst levels that they have been at in years and, with our consistent lack of rain, are only getting worse. This is all due to: 1) heavy rains over the fall and winter creating heavy fuel loads, 2) unusually low humidity levels (10-20%), 3) high wind conditions and 4) our good ol’ Texas heat. All of these add up to quick starting, rapidly growing wildland fires. Add homes built in the hills and canyons of the county and you get lots of large, catastrophic fires that are extremely hard to fight.
What does this mean for us? We need to be proactive when it comes to fire prevention in our area. First of all, the best thing we can do to protect our homes from a local wildland fire is basic housekeeping. Keep the weeds and brush around your home trimmed, clean up trash piles of flammables (paper, plastic, weeds, leaves, brush, wood, etc.), clean leaves and weeds out from under decks, and, silly as it sounds, keep your rain gutters clean. I’ll explain……..
Most exposure fires in wildland incidents are not caused by direct flame impingement. They are caused by fire brands (flying red embers) being carried by the wind, ahead of the fire, landing on flammable fuels around a home. This is why there was a sporadic pattern to homes lost in the Oak Hill/Y Fire two weeks ago. Many of those homes were lost due to fire brands landing on brush, high weeds next to the homes and, yes, leaves in the rain gutters! (I would never have thought of that until a friend who was at this fire told me!) Keeping the area tidy will help you keep fire away.
Another point to realize is that these “House Keeping” fire safety points aren’t just for wildland fires. During these types of weather conditions, the same fire brand exposure issues can happen with a typical residential house fire. A house two blocks from yours is on fire and, with the low humidity, high heat and high winds, the fire brands generated from that burning structure travel down wind, land in your rain gutter and now your house has a problem!
The Texas Forest Service also has a pamphlet they produced describing how homeowners can protect their homes from wildland fires. It’s available on the Jollyville Fire Department website at https://www.jvfd.org/docs/ReadySetGoBooklet.pdf. This lists what the forest service recommends that homeowners do to best prevent their homes from being involved in wildland fires. This also is the best way to assist your local fire departments in protecting your homes during this type of incident. Just a little hint, fire departments are actually schooled in how to decide which homes are “defendable” and many use the guidelines outlined on this pamphlet. It’s not that fire departments don’t want to save every home that is threatened; it’s that many homes have too much brush around them, not enough access or just not enough water in the area to prevent an aggressive, extreme fire from igniting the home.