Looking for information on fire proofing around a home.

[John from Cle Elum]

Hi
I am looking for a good source of information for reducing the risk of fire around my home. I live in Washington state straddling the wet/dry divide. Its about 10 wooded acres mix of pondarosa and douglas fir. Each year I remove fuel close to the house. After a couple of fires in the area, closest being about 1.5 miles away, I need to get a lot more active.

The state used to have a "Fire Wise" program where you could go to a seminar and talk with an expert. I have not seen the seminar offered in a while. The people that went to it were not really too enthused. The state still offers some printed material with generic information. I have a lot of questions reguarding existing ground cover, disposal of material and grasses. Example: One neighbor said that vine maple was ok, the other said it should be removed (huge job). I am not asking the question, I am really looking for a good source of info that will answer that kind of specific question.

If you know of something, let me know. Maybe even a text book or something like that.

Thanks
John

 

[slowp]

Sunset Magazine has had several articles and I'm thinking they even have landscaping for fire resistance in one of their landscape books.
http://www.sunset.com/home/architecture-design/fire-safe-house

Vine maple isn't very flammable when green. You'd want to keep the leaves raked up, as you should with the pine needles. Disposing of that stuff? Compost it. Throw it on the garden as a mulch. For twigs and branches, burning during the winter, when there is no fire danger works well if it is legal. I save up my slash and do that...but I live in a less populated, wetter area. Composting works. I do it the lazy way, but the one time I had heat out of a compost pile, I had put green horse manure from one horse, one episode, in the pile and worked it in. The lazy way is just piling it and letting it decompose. In the spring it goes on the garden, chunks or not.

Keep the grass cut, keep a green area around your house and keep the gutters and roof cleaned off. It's all common sense stuff.

Are you thinning and pruning your trees? That helps keep flame lengths in check and makes for a cooler burn should fire happen.

 

[John from Cle Elum]

I was looking for more recommendations on a 10acre wooded tract not just near the house. Its potentially a lot of work. I want to do enough and certainly not too much. I am looking for a resource to develop a plan.

 

[Gologit]

I was looking for more recommendations on a 10acre wooded tract not just near the house. Its potentially a lot of work. I want to do enough and certainly not too much. I am looking for a resource to develop a plan.

It's hard to give definite answers without seeing pictures. Would thinning help? Getting rid of ladder fuel wouldn't be a bad idea.
Is the surrounding property, especially that property upwind on a prevailing summer wind day, heavily wooded? Has it been thinned? If your neighbor's place is on fire will it tend to crown? Ponderosa and DF will support crown fire and if that happens there isn't really much you can do but get out.
Slowp had some good pointers on fire prevention but nothing is ever really "fire proof".

 

[slowp]

There is a ton of information for that. Go to the nearest DNR or Forest Service office. The latter is in Cle Elum. The library should have tons of information as does the internet.

Prune, rake or burn or chip, and thin and mow. Find out what the optimum spacing or basal area per acre is for your site. That would take local expertise. That's about it. You won't stop a fire from going through, but you might keep the flame lengths low and cool enough so it doesn't fry stuff. Composting is still an option. And yes, it can be a lot of work and it has to be maintained.

 

[John from Cle Elum]

Thanks SRP. I will drop by the Forest Service and see if they can help.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

Most Fire departments are more than happy to come by and give you a risk assesment.One little known fact is that when they make their final sweep they make hard decisions on which structures they will fight to save, and which ones they wont. The guy with five years worth of pine needles on his roof, brush right up to his house is usually screwed. The guy that has done due diligence and given them a fightingchance to save the structure has a much better shot.

 

[2dogs]

Buy a small dozer, say a D6, and clear everything out to 100'. Then remove any tree taller than 100' out to 200'. Run impact sprinklers on everything past the 100' line. Limb up to 6' on your entire property. Install a 10,000 gallon water tank. Make your driveway 12' wide and 12' tall. Keep your comp roof and gutters perfectly clean. Box all eaves. Remove your deck. Add a large in-ground swimming pool. Store all valuables in an underground vault. Buy lots of insurance. Learn to rain dance.

 

[northmanlogging]

you can also cut some fire trails around the perimeter, several would be better, basically a cleared road free of brush and fuel, keep them mowed, these can help with a ground fire, crown fire not much helps...

along with that pool and tank, you could insall a couple of ponds permitting allowed

Otherwise the rest nailed, thin the dead and dying trees to whatever a local forester says is safe, keep the limps trimmed and keep the brush and duff off the ground and roofs. A mid sized tractor and a brush mower can aid in some of this.

The only question I have is whether or not your piece of dirt is flat ish or more to the hilly and steep side of things? Cle Elum kinda goes both ways.

 

[slowp]

Goats.

 

[Gologit]

Buy a small dozer, say a D6, and clear everything out to 100'. Then remove any tree taller than 100' out to 200'. Run impact sprinklers on everything past the 100' line. Limb up to 6' on your entire property. Install a 10,000 gallon water tank. Make your driveway 12' wide and 12' tall. Keep your comp roof and gutters perfectly clean. Box all eaves. Remove your deck. Add a large in-ground swimming pool. Store all valuables in an underground vault. Buy lots of insurance. Learn to rain dance.

Good advice. What do you want him to do the next day?

 

[slowp]

Good advice. What do you want him to do the next day?

I'd wire it for wifi, power, and put in a lot of showers. It's best to put the icky blue bathrooms in the shade. A mini mart across the street would be a good investment.

 

[John from Cle Elum]

2dogs is a genius. I have been looking for an excuse to buy a Cat. The deck will stay, but I planned on changing the deck material to composite. Mainly because its too hard to keep the wood in good condition when it has 2' of snow on it in the winter and its 100deg in the summer. The eves are probably ok, its a real short overhang. I may spend a day on those. The swimming pool will happen in my next life.

NorthMan: It is on a steep grade near the top of steep hill. I will pretty much clear every thing out to 150' or to the top of the hill. I am taking out that last 50' or so now. This particular area is not nearly as dry as Cle Elum. Its more like Easton. Mainly doug fir, not much ponderosa. Lots of low vine maple, some ocean spray and salal. It all stays green even at the end of a hot summer.

As far as getting help from the Fire Department making an assessment: they are all hardworking volunteers. They work house fires and stuff but when the forests go they bring in specialized crews. I think I will talk to them anyway and maybe they can put me in contact with some smart guys.

This is an ongoing project. I will do whatever I can each spring and fall. I want to do the high impact stuff 1st. Its not really that vulerable the way it is now. There are a lot of places nearby that are much worse. It really depends on the type of fire.

A little off the subject.... I hiked into the area that burned (South Cle Elum Ridge Fire) and it was not what I expected. There were a lot of trees standing. Maybe 40 or 50%. Singed near the base and green at the top but still standing. I don't know if they will survive. I saw aftermath of another fire when I was about 10yo and it incinerated absolutely EVERYTHING down into the soil a couple of inches. I remember being up to my knees in ash after it cooled a couple of weeks later. It looked like the moon.

Thanks for the help.
John

 

[TheJollyLogger]

Kerp in mind, you can mitigate, but not eliminate. The only way to "fireproof" your house is to move it to Arizona.

 

[northmanlogging]

Different fires have different effects, that and how much fuel. Just a guess but the Cle Elum fire was probably mostly a grass fire, as that area having burned often and having at least some logging going on, The second fire probably had very little maintenance and therefore huge amounts of fuel, making for a very hot fire. Also just a guess that the second fire you talked about took many years to recover, where as the Cle Elum one this time next year you'll be hard pressed to recognize the burned areas.

 

[slowp]

Arizona burns too.

 

[RandyMac]

If there is a public road below you, start at the bottom of your property. thin to break up the crown, clear brush and litter. Dig firelines, 8-10 feet wide, down to mineral soil, keep maintained.

 

[2dogs]

2dogs is a genius.

Everybody know that John. Thanks anyway.

 

[Gologit]

Everybody know that John. Thanks anyway.

Uh, no, not gonna say it.

 

[2dogs]

Uh, no, not gonna say it.

Hey at least my dog thinks so. Most of the time anyway.