Let’s get proactive about fighting wildfires
Let’s get proactive about fighting wildfires
23 August 2013
published by www.popularmechanics.com
USA — The problem started more than 100 years ago, after the “Big Blowup” series of fires in 1910, the U.S. made a decision: It accepted the concept that wildfires could be controlled. That move has guided the last century of fire suppression policy.
But many modern wildfire experts say that a fire is more related to its disastrous kin, such as tornadoes, earthquakes and hurricanes, than we give it credit. “No one thinks they can redirect a hurricane,” says Molly Mowery, a fire-adapted communities program manager for the National Fire Protection Agency. “But if there’s an approach toward fighting the fire, we’ll send resources to it and there’s an attitude that we can control the outcome.”
Of course, whether and how fiercely the government ought to fight to contain wildfires in the West is a hugely controversial issue. As fires rage across the West this summer, including the deadly Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona and the current blaze in Idaho, experts have been preaching different ways to deal with the threat. A salve for the situation could be educating the public and working with insurance companies to communicate the message that little things matter, especially little things done in advance. Homeowners may understand the risk of living in a wildfire-prone area, but may not realize how simple solutions from home construction and landscaping can protect themselves, their property, and also firefighters.
Mowery works with a program called Firewise, an initiative to educate homeowners on how to protect their homes against wildfires. The program targets two problem areasconstruction and landscapingand the exact prescription for each community is always different.
“The combination of building materials and landscaping for homeowners was a big [realization] that there was science to support that there was something homeowners could do,” Mowery says. “They could take action.” Replacing flammable roofing with metal, clay, or cement tile can reduce risk (though retrofitting can be costly). Fire-resistant siding, fencing, and strategic landscaping, such as using driveways and pathways as firebreaks, also reduces the chances of embers finding a home’s weak spot.
What’s needed is more than simply showing people how to protect their homes in fire-prone areas. There needs to be a cultural shift, a more proactive perception of fighting wildfires, says Bob Roper, who’s been in the firefighting business for more than 30 years and now serves as the chairman of the wildland policy committee at the International Association of Fire Chiefs. “It’s kind of like wearing a seat belt. We had seat belts in the ’60s, but people didn’t wear them. It’s taken a long time, but now it’s an automatic motion when we get into a car. That’s what we’re trying to get done now is get the culture to change for people who live in hazardous areas.”
In 2010, the IAFC and other wildfire-monitoring groups implemented the Ready, Set, Go wildfire action plan. The description is in the name. Ready your home, understand the situation and setting, and go early and as directed.
How do you ready a home? Roper describes local ordinances that help remove weeds and other potential fuels around residential areas. He also mentions regulations on new home construction, each varying in severity depending on what fire codes that community adopts. During Roper’s 15-year stint as fire chief of Ventura County, just north of Los Angeles, such rules were in place because that area was accustomed to combating wildfires. But as global warming continues to alter climates, some local governments are just now beginning to implement more stringent wildland fire codes and zoning rules.
“What we’re trying to express to people is that government can’t solve the wildfire problem itself,” Roper says. “The public, the people who live in those areas, need to accept the responsibilities of living in those areas and do their part to make the area safer.”
The Ready, Set, Go and Firewise programs have reached 900 fire departments in the U.S., and the number is growing. With more than 45 million homes in the U.S. in potential wildfire territory, the challenge is formidable, but Roper and Mowery don’t sound defeated.
“[Wildfires] are a force of nature beyond humans’ ability to dump a bunch of retardant on a situation
and not have any damage to the community,” Mowery says. “Unless you prepare the community.”