After a fire started near Interstate 5 in Ashland, Oregon last August jumped the Interstate and burned 11 houses, residents asked the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to build a concrete wall to protect the houses they are now rebuilding from future fires that might start along the Interstate.
A homeless man, John David Thiry, was arrested and charged with starting the fire. He was found at 3 a.m., intoxicated, under a freeway overpass a few hours after the fire started.
A local contractor estimated that an 8-foot high concrete wall 900 feet long would cost $93,000. However, the ODOT said they don’t build fire-protection walls, only walls to buffer sound.
Here is an excerpt from an article at DailyTidings.com:
[Jerry Marmon, ODOT district manager] said fires that start from cigarettes or broken-down cars on the side of the freeway usually are small and don’t spread quickly.
“They’re typically very small, very slow-growing fires,” he said. “We keep the grass mowed there to reduce the fire hazard.”
Fueled by strong winds and low humidity, the Oak Knoll fire started in a brush field near Washington Street, consumed an abandoned barn and jumped the freeway, igniting the 11 houses within minutes. Firefighters have said that embers from where the fire began, on the other side of Interstate 5, were traveling 1,400 feet in the air, and easily could have ignited other homes in the area.
“We’re not going to be able to build a wall adjacent to both sides of the freeway that’s high enough to prevent conditions like those on that day,” Marmon said.
However, the fire victims say building a wall could at least help slow the spread of another potential fire and might save homes from igniting like candles, one after another.
“Are we going to have this string of mishmash fences back there again?” Thomas said. “It doesn’t seem smart to build a wooden fence again.”
A wall would help bring peace of mind to some of the fire victims, said Rick Ogier, who lost his home to the fire.
Now this is more like it – the Oak Knoll Meadows neighborhood is also working towards Firewise certification, and would be the first neighborhood in Ashland to receive the designation:
http://www.dailytidings.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110106/NEWS02/101060304
Thanks, Barb. That’s good news.
I moved to Ashland a few months ago, and was here when the Oak Knoll fire started. The fire didn’t have anything to do with the freeway. It was a very fast-moving grass fire, and if anything, the freeway may have delayed it reaching those houses by a few minutes.
The Oak Knoll fire was the worst residential fire in Ashland in over a century, and I certainly understand that folks want to prevent this from happening again. But a wall wouldn’t do anything. It’s an unfortunate, reactionary response.