Fire Break – Wildfire Safety Blog

Boise residents credit Firewise for helping keep homes safe during fire

During a recent newscast on Boise State Public Radio, residents of Wilderness Ranch, one of the first pilot communities of the Firewise Communities/USA® Recognition Program, pointed to their consistent mitigation efforts and neighbor-to-neighbor outreach that helped saved homes and property when the recent Karney Fire moved closer to their area.

Listen to the interview!

Learn more about Wilderness Ranch’s mitigation efforts during the past decade, and how their continued dedication to wildfire safety is making a marked difference today.

Did you know? There are additional communities across the U.S. that have celebrated 10 years of Firewise success and made a positive difference in the lives of their residents. Check out their stories on the Firewise website and share your own community stories with us. We want to hear from you!

Photo courtesy of Boise National Forest

Ashland, Oregon secrets to Firewise® success

Last week my Firewise travels took me to the city of Ashland and other communities in southern Oregon.  I was fortunate to meet with the state Firewise Liaison - Kris Babbs (Oregon Department of Forestry); Ali True (Firewise Communities Coordinator); Chris Chambers (Forest Resource Specialist); John Karns (Fire Chief); and Margueritte Hickman (Fire Marshal); as well as many other representatives from the U.S. Forest Service, Oregon Department of Forestry, City Council and the City of Ashland Firewise Communities Commission.

The City of Ashland Fire Department has been very busy since the devastating 2010 Oak Knoll Fire that destroyed 11 homes in less than an hour.  Chief Karns was hired a year before this tragic event, immediately put his understanding of fire prevention and mitigation to work.  After the Oak Knoll Fire he introduced the Firewise Communities/USA® recognition program to the City and hired a Firewise Coordinator.  This initiative could not have turned out better. Ali True who was hired as the
Firewise Coordinator has proven to be a true a true inspiration for Ashland’s Firewise Program and the proof speaks for itself.  In just over a year since Ali was hired the City of Ashland now has 9 Firewise Communities! The smallest is 2 ½ acres to the largest of 40 ½ acres in size, and yes the neighborhood around the Oak Knolls area is now a Firewise Community too. 

So what is the secret to such success you ask of a City of 20,000?  That is the question I asked of the people on the ground doing the work, the citizens that live within the Firewise Communities of Ashland. 

Here is what they told me:

1. You have to understand that you have a wildfire risk and it is everyone’s responsibility to do something about it because fire knows no boundaries.
2. The Firewise Program should start from the ‘ground up’, not the ‘top down’, meaning the homeowners need to take on a leadership role and develop the program from within versus being forced by government to embrace this program.  This ‘ground up’ empowers citizens to help themselves.
3. Firewise community members did say where government can help and often does is to support a Firewise Community Coordinator position where a person like Ali True who has a wonderful personality and is a “people” person can engage the community promoting the benefits of the Firewise Communities/USA program.  Without this community position, the homeowners did not feel the program would have been successful.
4. Another important ingredient of this successful recipe is access to grant money.  Community members said that seed money usually in the form of a “cost-share” program through state or federal partners was extremely helpful.  One recommended method to utilize this resource was for residents to reduce the fuels on their property by thinning and cutting brush and then using the grant to help fund the chipping, mulching and disposal of the waste vegetation. There were other innovative ways shared by homeowners, with the same objective of reducing the fuel loading and creating defensible space around homes and common areas within the community. The net outcome being the creation fuel breaks between homes and neighborhoods resulting in overall community wildfire risk reduction.  In addition to completing the major work through the grant, it is also important to stress the need for ongoing maintenance activities by individuals around their homes, as this will ensure that wildfire risk is kept low and is especially important activity during the fire season.

So why does the City of Ashland have more Firewise Communities than any other city in Oregon? They understand that their neighborhoods are vulnerable to wildfire, and that Firewise is a “grass roots” program promoting personal responsibility.  Also that there needs to be some local advocate, who is educated in wildfire and has the ability to create local partnerships between government agencies and homeowners. And last, but not always necessary in every situation; grant funding to assist communities to help offset some of the vegetation mitigation cost. 

So what is next for Ashland Oregon you may ask?  Fire Department officials say that there are three more Firewise Communities/USA recognition site applications in the mail and three more neighborhoods are in the process to become recognized as a Firewise Community/USA site.  Oh, and the Mayor, Fire Chief, Fire Marshal and the Ashland Firewise Sparkplug Ali True are talking about how to create a larger coalition to represent more community, business, and government members to move forward towards a Fire Adapted Community!

Firewise is easy in Itasca County, Minnesota!

When a person approaches you and wants to talk to you about a program that can make you home safer against wildland fire, you are interested and listen, until they start talking about getting together with neighbors and documenting hours and filling out an application. Then it seems like a lot of work and something you don’t have time for.

Everyone is busy nowadays and is leery about taking on more projects. We already spend our weekends working around the house cutting grass, weeding the landscaping around the house, watering flowers and bushes, raking leaves or pine needles, all kinds of chores to make our house look nice….wait…all of those chores are part of being Firewise! Maybe Firewise isn’t so difficult after all.

Minnesota has had one recognized community, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, since the Firewise program began, until now. Itasca County has been using Firewise practices for several years without being recognized as a Firewise Community/USA community. The county wrote their Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) 5 years ago and organized their Firewise Board to oversee projects within the community. They were doing almost all of the requirements for being recognized except for making application.

After working with Bill Brink, Itasca County Firewise Coordinator, for about 6 months, Minnesota has their second recognized community. Suomi Area made application in July and received their recognition in August. Bill contacted several of the fire departments and other area communities within the county after getting his first recognized community under his belt and will be submitting 12-15 more applications this year.  

Bill thought that the application would be too difficult and time consuming to become recognized. When I was able to show him that they were already doing 4 of the 5 requirements to be recognized, he was excited. I provided Bill examples of other communities supporting paperwork and when he saw those examples he said, “This is what we are already doing. We keep track of our volunteer hours and put them in an annual report that we submit to our county leaders.” The Itasca County Board of Directors has supported the efforts of the Itasca County Firewise Committee since they started.

So, is it really easier to become recognized as a Firewise Community in Minnesota? No, not any easier than anywhere else in the United States. Itasca County just happened to be doing Firewise principles without making application for many years. With a little information and guidance, the county is buzzing about Firewise. Itasca County is one of five counties in Minnesota that have been following Firewise practices without being recognized, until now. I look for big things to happen in Minnesota in the next year. Guess you’ll have to keep posted to our blogs to see what happens next.

If you feel that your community falls into the same category as Itasca County, contact your State Firewise Liaison or Regional Firewise Advisor for assistance. These can be found at www.firewise.org.

Bring Your Story to Life at Backyards & Beyond

Call for Presentations
NFPA’s Wildland Fire Operations Division is seeking educational session presentations for the 2013 Backyards & Beyond Wildfire Education Conference where a widely diverse audience of leading wildfire experts, emergency responders, community planners, Firewise® community representatives, residents, insurance professionals, landscape architects and others come together to network and share
best practices.

Submit your presentation online by Monday, December 31, 2012 and share your expertise and story on key wildfire issues under any of the following topics:

• Community Safety Approaches and Strategies
• Home Construction & Landscape Design
• Research (Physical, Social, Ecology and Environmental)
• Technology, Policy & Regulations
• Wildfire Planning, Suppression & Operations
  
  
  
  

Southern California gains new Firewise community

In light of the five-year anniversary of the 2007 fires in California, it is great to see communities in the southern half of the state organizing themselves in collaboration with their authorities having jurisdiction, to gain national recognition as Firewise communities! What a pleasant surprise it was to meet one of California's newest Firewise communities, Orange County’s, The Canyons, at a Wild Land Fire Prevention Conference sponsored by the California Fire Safe Council and an insurance company. They were eager to share their Firewise story. They are already working on overlapping ignition zones in their community, the road frontage on everyone's private property.  Sonja Powell, the Orange County Assistant Fire Marshal who assisted them, is happy to see the great progress that they have made in one year already!  And stay tuned! Another Firewise community, Cowan Heights, has just turned in their application!

Want more information about how your community can become an official recognized Firewise site? Check out our website and our newest Firewise toolkit, where you can find facts about the Firewise Communities Program, checklists for homeowners and so much more!

The age of western wildfires

Climate Central a non-profit organization that conducts scientific research on climate change and informs the public of key findings recently published a report on September 19, titled ‘The Age of Western Wildfires’.   According to the report the 2012 wildfire season isn’t over yet and the year is shaping up to be one of the worst on record in the western United States.

Among the report’s findings are:

1. The number of large and very large fires on Forest Service land is increasingly dramatically. Compared to the average year in the 1970s, in the past decade there were: seven times more fires greater than 10,000 acres each year, nearly five times more fires larger than 25,000 acres each year, and twice as many fires over 1,000 acres each year, with an average of more than 100 per year from 2002 through 2011, compared with less than 50 during the 1970s.
2. In some states the increase in wildfires is even more dramatic. Since the 1970s the average number of fires over 1,000 acres each year has nearly quadrupled in Arizona and Idaho, and has doubled in California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming.
3. On average, wildfires burn twice as much land area each year as they did 40 years ago. In the past decade, the average annual burn area on Forest Service land in the West has exceeded 2 million acres - more than all of Yellowstone National Park.

Residents urged to reduce homes’ risk from wildfire during major wildfire anniversary

This year has demonstrated the trend that wildfires are burning larger than ever, and NFPA's Firewise Communities Program is urging homeowners to take action to reduce the risk of losing their homes and property to wildfires.

Photo taken in Bastrop, TX shortly after the wildfire in 2011. Photo by Ryan Depew.

September 2012 marks the first anniversary of the most destructive wildfire in Texas history. The Bastrop County Complex Fire destroyed more than 1,600 homes before it was extinguished in October 2011. While this record-breaking wildfire left lasting effects on the state, the Steiner Ranch neighborhood is a shining example of resilience and progress, as residents have come together to start anew – rebuilding using Firewise guidelines for home construction and landscape design and maintenance. This included taking part in a community fuel reduction day in which flammable brush and debris were removed and adequate space between trees and homes was created.

As September is National Preparedness Month, now is the time for millions of residents across the country to prepare themselves and protect their homes from the continued risk of wildfire. Contrary to common perception, a wildfire does not have to burn everything in its path. In fact, clearing property of debris and maintaining landscaping are important, yet simple, first steps for homeowners.

Residents can take certain actions to reduce the risk of home and property becoming fuel for a wildfire – actions that have saved communities such as Cedar Heights in Colorado Springs earlier this year. A comprehensive Firewise tips checklist for homeowners is available on the Firewise website.

Red guide to disaster recovery

I learned about a great resource currently available to San Diego County residents to be used in the event of a disaster.  It is called, "The Red Guide to Recovery". This resource handbook for disaster survivors is sponsored by the San Diego Burn Institute, Sempra Energy and others.  The book written by Sean Scott, was designed to answer critical questions that individuals have when they are recovering from a disaster including a wildfire.

The book addresses multiple decisions that will need to be made quickly after a disaster event and includes the following key issues:

• Emergency preparedness kit
• Taking safety precautions immediately following a disaster
• Finding temporary shelter
• Cleaning up and protecting your property
• Submitting and pursuing your insurance claim
• Finding financial aid
• Selecting building contractors and others

Even if you are not from San Diego you may want to examine some of the issues examined to prepare this information for yourself in a notebook or recipe card box, so that if a disaster occurs you are ready.  The American Red Cross, and your local Emergency Management Agency would also have resource information readily available to you.Remember to always have an out of state contact designated for local family members to reach in case phone lines are down! 

Don't forget to prepare your home in the event of a wildfire event.  Fire Adapted Communities, Firewise Communities/USA® and the NFPA all have resources available to you on line to guide you in your preparations before an event.  It has been proven that preparation efforts will greatly reduce your losses in a wildfire event.  According to the FEMA website: "In the wake of disasters, people often wonder whether there is a way to protect both people and property from such devastating losses. The answer is a resounding "YES!" Mitigation is the way to provide that protection. Hazard mitigation means taking action to reduce or prevent future damage, preferably before a disaster strikes."  Create a Fire Adapted
Community with your neighbors today!

 

 

Workshop delivers powerful lessons to homeowners

I often need a really good visual to give me an “a-ha moment” when trying to fully understand a new concept.  And this past weekend, I had the opportunity to witness some wildland/urban interface homeowners experience their own personal “a-ha” moments during the two Colorado Rebuilds
Fire Adapted Communities workshops held in Fort Collins and Littleton, Colorado.

This Saturday, September 22, Colorado Springs area residents will also get an opportunity to experience their own defining moments when they attend the same workshop.  Attendees will learn how homes and their surrounding landscape features are impacted during a wildfire; and the actions that can be implemented to reduce their risk.

Using the latest building science research, senior scientist Steven Quarles with the Insurance Institute for Building & Home Safety (IBHS), will incorporate a set of full-scale displays to visually demonstrate the types of materials that perform best under wildfire conditions; and explain why certain components and areas of the home are most vulnerable during a wildfire.  Additional presenters include CSFD’s Deputy Fire Marshal Kris Cooper and Regional Firewise Advisor Keith Worley.

The workshops provide information that can change the way homeowners look at their home and lot in relation to its vulnerability during a wildfire.

Join the Fire Adapted Communities Coalition and Lowe’s Home Improvement stores at this one-hour free workshop and I can assure you’ll leave thinking differently about your home and landscaping.  WARNING: Attending this workshop will increase your honey's "to-do" list!

Attend the workshop this Saturday, September 22, at 11am at the Lowe’s in Colorado Springs, CO located at 488 North Nevada Avenue.

- Cathy Prudhomme

Hubs can create successful fire adapted communities

Many successful fire adapted communities such as Prescott, Arizona and Nevada County, California have developed unique wildland-urban interface organizations to collaboratively address community wildfire risk.  They mobilize Firewise® community efforts with a central group like the hub of a wheel and many smaller communities acting like spokes of a wheel supporting the mission of the central group.

Image 1: A conceptual representation of the 'hub' organizational structure

The smaller groups (such as homeowner associations), develop local efforts in their neighborhoods to compliment the mission of the central group. These groups all together work collaboratively with agency partners developing large scale plans or Community Wildfire Protection Plans that focus efforts on a large scale by examining assets at risk, topography, fire history, vegetation and fuels class, mitigating structural ignitability, weather and prevailing winds to develop a long range plan that identifies priorities of the community’s fire prevention efforts. The smaller communities then complete assessments of their community wildfire risks collaboratively with agency partners and their authority having jurisdiction to
create a community firewise risk assessment, prioritize an action plan, develop a board, organize and host a Firewise Day and complete $2.00 per capita in Firewise work in order to receive national recognition as Firewise Communities/USA® site. Together they support a host of efforts including Ready Set Go, Citizen Emergency Response Groups (CERT), ham radio efforts, Red Cross Shelters, Home Ignition Zone Classes and others.

Are you living in a Fire Adapted Community? Are you ready in the event of a wildfire? Become the 'sparkplug' that helps to get your community ready in the event of a wildfire. You can learn how to become a part of this national Fire Adapted Communities initiative by visiting the following sites www.fireadapted.org, www.firewise.org, and www.wildlandfirersg.org