Tom McMackin
High Prairie’s FireWise effort has been on hold through these summer months because everyone has been concentrating on the business of Summer. We are not completely out of the woods for wildfires. The fine fuels – grasses and brush – are well cured and with the right conditions and the wind could readily burn, carrying fire over a wide area. Everyday common sense and care are still important aspects of anything done outside that might have the potential for initiating a fire.
Fall is an excellent time to revisit the ‘defensible space’ concepts that are part of the FIreWise and Ready, Set, Go! Programs. Creating and maintaining fire buffer zones or defensible space around your property will provide areas that will resist encroachment by a wildfire. It will also provide firefighters with a buffer to concentrate their efforts to manage a fire’s path more effectively because any threat to structures has been minimized by your work to protect your home and property.
These fire buffer zones are calculated for the average residential house and are set at 5’/30’/100’ from the foundation wall outward all the way around a given structure. It is very easy to include the first zone at 5’ in planning for Fall clean up chores… and get ahead of some of Spring’s chores.
Incorporate fire safety awareness into preparing for the rain and snow we can expect for Winter and Spring. Start at the peak of your roof. Look for areas that have squirreled away leaves, twigs and other light fluff or places where a timely repair would save drips through the ceiling. Inspection and cleaning of the stovepipe or chimney system for the coming heating season is an item that should be on the Fall chores list. Gutters can also be checked for condition and function, and relieved of anything that has settled there with the season’s change. Cleaning the dry fallen leaves, pine needles or other debris is easily accomplished before the roof gets wet with rain or snow. These tasks all dovetail with being FireWise, since a shower of embers or sparks is very much like a rain shower.
On the ground around your home the work clearing up the leaves, pine needles and old plantings will serve to keep soggy wet debris from coming inside. It will also give you the opportunity to reconsider these areas next to the building for next Spring’s plantings or other use in order to create a fire-resistant buffer. You can also make note of any repairs needed to keep leaks or creeping fire from contact with the house. These can be added to the ‘Honey, Do… !’ list for later attention. As the stove wood pile gets used over the Winter and cleared from the side of the building, plan a new spot for the wood away from any building contact. Becoming aware of this 5’ buffer zone now will make preparation for a FireWise defensible home next Summer that much easier.
If you have questions about FireWise or fire safety, or would like to have someone come by to help you with preparing a plan for creating customized FireWise defensible spaces for your home, please contact Tom McMackin at 509-365-2786 or by email at firewise.onhighprairie@gmail.com.