The County Commissioners of Lewis and Clark County in Montana recently approved a resolution making it clear that county-level firefighters are not under an obligation to protect a home from a wildfire in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). Below is an excerpt from an article in the Missoulian:
“…A lot of crews think they have to protect homes, and we’re trying to make it clear they’re just sticks and bricks,” said Sonny Stiger, who helped write the resolution. “This lets our firefighters know they’re not obligated to put their lives on the line to save homes.”
Stiger, a retired fire and fuels specialist with the U.S. Forest Service and a board member with FireSafe Montana, said building defensible space around homes in the urban interface is the sole responsibility of property owners who choose to live there.
Stiger said the new resolution makes it clear that homeowners should not expect firefighters to put their lives at risk to defend property.
“We can save a lot of homes going back in after the fire front passes, or in the case of the Yarnell Hill fire, not going in at all,” Stiger said, referring to the Arizona blaze that killed 19 firefighters in June. “It’s time we stepped up at the county level to deal with this, and to let (firefighters) know they’re not obligated to protect homes…”
The resolution says in part:
Homes in the Wildland/Urban Interface will not dictate fire suppression tactics, strategies, or the location of fire lines.
The article claims this is a “first-of-its-kind resolution”, which may be the case. There is no doubt that some homeowners who moved into the WUI and refuse to cut or thin the trees and brush growing within 100 feet of their houses will be furious at this concept. Some of them take no responsibility as a property owner to make their homes fire-safe, but expect firefighters, many of them volunteers, to risk their lives to save their structures.
Placing the primary responsibility to protect a home from wildfire on the property owner, where it belongs, is very appropriate. County, city, and state regulations recognizing this do not exist in many areas..
On the Yarnell Hill Fire there was at least one person in a supervisory role who asked the Granite Mountain Hotshots to move from their safe, previously burned area, over to the the town of Yarnell in order to protect the structures, many of which were described later as not defendable due to brush and trees very close to the buildings. Some of the homeowners had done little or nothing to make their homes fire-safe. As the crew hiked through unburned brush toward the town, they were overrun by the fire and killed.
In the structural firefighting world you will sometimes hear opinions about risk-taking while fighting fire, including:
- Risk a lot to save a lot.
- Risk a little to save a little.
- Risk nothing to save nothing.
“Risk a lot” usually refers to rescuing occupants or preventing their death. “Save nothing” may apply to an abandoned building.
In wildland fire, vegetation could be in the “nothing” category. Sure, wildland fuels may have ecological, watershed, aesthetic value, or monetary value in the case of timber or pasture, but most vegetation has adapted or evolved to burn on a regular basis and will usually grow back. Houses grow back too, but firefighters don’t. Firefighters should never risk much to save acres OR houses.
Political lip service to protect municipalities liability for poor land use and development standards rather than change wildland firefighting practices.
If municipalities want to actually increase firefighter safety… CHANGE BUILDING AND ZONING standards.
Great and long overdue. There is no need for wildfires to be more than a smoke and other pollution nuisance (and source of potential collateral value loss if forest near a house is burned), as opposed to a threat to homes. Ultimately this is a moral and ethical issue and the commissioners are doing a good job leading.
This has been a problem for years in many of the western states. State legislators need to create some new laws requiring fir safe structures and defensible space and then enforce them. Urban interface areas thru city and county regulations can do a lot.
Are you willing to put yourself in harms way for a house that will soon now belongs to the bank and the insurance company? Loss your life because a home/property owner failed to make an satisfactory effort to prepare for a wildfire?
Are you the last line of defense on a threatening fire that elected officials failed to fund a system for stopping small fires in their early initial attack stage?
Good point Mr.Coldwater.
I look at it as that someone’s failure to act in a timely manner does not constitute an emergency on my part.
…”I look at it as that someone’s failure to act in a timely
manner does not constitute an emergency
o̶n̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶p̶a̶r̶t̶…”
Would seem to be the case, sometimes…
OCR
https://wildfiretoday.com/2010/11/22/report-released-for-davis-escaped-prescribed-fire-near-helena-mt/
https://wildfiretoday.com/2010/08/30/background-information-about-the-davis-escaped-prescribed-fire-in-montana-3/
https://wildfiretoday.com/?s=escaped+davis
To paraphrase Sun Tzu …
one should not rely on the bravery of his soldiers to achieve victory
I have read angry comments from homeowners about this already. The resolution may be a good way to go about it though. We were never supposed to die saving property, even on the structure side of things. However, this might be just the ticket to get landowners to do the right thing. But probably not. I live in and fight fires in the state of Montana and I approve this message!
This a good step in the right direction.
I think that some firefighting agencies already have this concept ingrained informally in their culture, and many do not. Either way it is good to formally pass resolutions or laws similar to this to notify the public and firefighters as to what their obligations are.
Helena, the State Capitol is in Lewis and Clark County
Mann Gulch is in Lewis and Clark County
Since 1999 there have been several Type 1 fires in Lewis and Clark County including a WUI fire last year in the North End of the Valley (the name of the fire escapes me).
*Everything* is political in Lewis and Clark County. Quite frankly I am surprised the County Commissioners had the political will to draft thsi respolution and sign it. We’ll see how they respond when there is another Type 1 fire. There is extensive beetle kill in the County.
You are right about that Chris, the drive from Great Falls to Helena is bad. It is a treat when you spot a green tree, then you figure that the green ones are probably in the process of turning red and you feel bad again.
You are right, I have often said, a fire could burn from South of Butte all the way to Glacier National Park and there is nothing to stop it short of a snow storm.
This is excellent.
This should be a national policy.
Well Done!! We fight wildland fire and take the risk we do to help and protect. However, too many lives have been lost because many homeowners will not be accountable for their property. Mitigate!!
This is a good note to cap the year on. This type of clear statement can help put a virtuous cycle in gear, including not allowing the footdraggers to continue to allow their properties to stay hazards.
Well said.