Structures farther apart are less likely to ignite neighboring homes during a wildfire
Deschutes County in Oregon has approved new zoning that will require new construction on the west side of Bend to be low density and fire-resistant.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reports that the new regulation will result in 90 percent fewer homes in the area than the previous code permitted.
One contributing factor that led to more than 15,000 homes being destroyed in two fires in California in 2018, the Camp and Carr Fires, was the close spacing between the structures.
A neighborhood on Debbie Lane in Paradise, California, before and after the Camp Fire that started November 8, 2018. The homes were 14 to 18 feet apart.
Cities, counties, and planning boards (where they exist) are often under pressure to approve new housing developments. They want to expand their tax base. Developers try to fit as many homes into a new subdivision as possible to maximize their investment. This too often results in homes that are 20-feet apart. If one is ignited by a burning ember that may have traveled a quarter of a mile from a fire (or a burning home) the radiant heat alone can ignite the homes on both sides. Then you can have a self-powered conflagration spreading house to house through a city. As long as the structures are that close together, the homeowners have not reduced the fuel in the Home Ignition Zone within 100 feet of the structure, and the home itself is not built to FireWise standards, a massive disaster can be the result.
Reducing the chances that a fire in a populated area will turn into a disaster that burns thousands of homes involves at least three categories of factors, in addition to weather:
Envelope of the structure itself: characteristics of the roof, vents, siding, doors, windows, foundation, fences, eaves, and decks. A FEMA publication (13 MB) has excellent detailed recommendations. Headwaters Economics found that the cost of building a fire-resistant home is about the same as a standard home.
Home Ignition Zone — topography and fuel within 100 feet.
Community infrastructure and planning: distance to nearby structures, evacuation capability, safety zones, road and driveway width, turnarounds at the end of roads, signage, and emergency water supply. Again, the FEMA document has great recommendations.
Elevated wildfire danger in parts of New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas, January 21, 2019.
Today the wildfire danger was “elevated” or “critical” in parts of New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center.
Historically the spring wildfire season in New Mexico and Colorado begins in May, but in recent years large fires have occurred earlier. Last year on March 8 the Stateline Fire started that burned over 28,000 acres in New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma.
As the threat from wildfires increases into the new year I can’t help but wonder how the shutdown of the Departments of Agriculture and Interior will affect the suppression of wildfires. We already know that many meetings and important firefighter training sessions have been canceled, hiring of seasonals is affected, and little to no fuel management activities are being conducted to reduce the threats to private property in spite of criticism from the White House about inadequate forest management leading to large wildfires.
The Stateline Fire started March 8, 2018 in northeast New Mexico and burned into Colorado and Oklahoma. Photo credit: Albuquerque Fire Department.
Some of the more than than 10,000 wildland firefighters in those departments are still working but without pay. Others are furloughed, also without pay.
In addition to those dedicated firefighters, the “militia”, made up of non-fire federal employees who are certified to fight fire when needed, are furloughed. When large fires break out the militia is called upon to fill many of the operational and logistical roles necessary to manage and suppress a fire. Contractors are also called in to provide essential services on fires including fire crews, engines, dozers, water tenders, medics, air tankers, helicopters, generators, catering, and showers. It remains to be seen to what extent these important resources will be available while there is no federal budget for the two land management departments.
I have heard a few federal firefighters say they will not fight fire for free. Unpaid firefighters working in a job that in an average year kills dozens of them raises questions about liability, safety, workman’s compensation, availability of emergency medivac services, and medical care.
The federal agencies already attempt to fight fire on the cheap. With unpaid personnel and no funding, will that degrade even further?
Firefighters are dedicated professionals and routinely go above and beyond the call of duty to protect lives and property. Most of them love what they are doing but could make much more money in a conventional, less hazardous job. At the entry level in the federal government they only make a little more than minimum wage. Years later they may still be living paycheck to paycheck. But when it can appear that they have been hung out to dry due to a petty political snit thousands of miles away in D.C., it may cause them to rethink what, if anything, they owe to the federal agency that is ordering them to work while not being paid.
Now that they all have missed a paycheck and next week will miss a second one, at some point they will have to make a choice about continuing to work for no money, or, to support themselves and their families — should they find another job that actually pays them to work, temporarily or for the long term.
Below is the Drought Monitor showing most areas in the western states in drought status ranging from Abnormally Dry to Exceptional Drought. The temperature and precipitation outlooks for February, March, and April predict higher than average temperatures in all of the western states for the next three months. These conditions, if proven accurate, could lead to higher than normal wildfire activity. But the actual conditions during that period, including wind speed, precipitation, and humidity, are also very important.
Drought MonitorTemperature and precipitation outlook for February through April, 2019.
Scott Gorman, the crew superintendent on a California hotshot crew, was interviewed on National Public Radio along with his wife Sarah Barnes. They talked about how the partial government shutdown is affecting their family, and the time that Mr. Gorman and three other firefighters were struck by lightning while working on the Noon Fire in Arizona in 2004.
The interview was posted by NPR on January 21, 2019.
Satellite photo of smoke from wildfires in Tasmania, January 21, 2019. The red dots represent heat detected by the satellite. NASA & Wildfire Today.
Wildfires that have been burning for weeks in Tasmania, the southernmost state in Australia, continue to spread and affect properties and air quality on the island. Some of the blazes in the central part of the state are burning in deep-seated organic soil, peat, and are likely to keep burning through the Australian summer.
Below is an excerpt from Radio New Zealand:
The fires have been burning since late December, in the Gell River area, after a heatwave and a period of lightning strikes and high winds. The fires were burning across 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) of mountainous terrain.
Haze from bushfire smoke is blanketing several Tasmanian towns, with hot and dry conditions across the state and more than 30 blazes already burning setting the scene for a nervous few days.
South of Hobart, air quality monitoring data measured smoke particles at 8.00am as being at elevated levels, with Geeveston at 35 times that of Hobart. Residents living in the Huon Valley, where smoke from the bushfire at Gell River has filled the sky, posted on social media that many had not seen conditions as bad, with some mentioning 1967 as the only year which came close – the year of Tasmania’s worst fire disaster.
On Facebook, George Henry Ross asked locals if they had ever seen so much smoke haze around the valley.
“I can’t remember a summer like it,” he said, with many agreeing.
Eric Bat said he had been chatting with a bloke who did remember a summer like it: 1967.
“We rather hoped things have improved since then.”
Reinforcements are being sent to Tasmania from New South Wales, Queensland, and New Zealand.
At least two large air tankers from the Australian mainland are helping out.
And personnel, as well…
Additional personnel from #NSWRFS, @ACTRFS, @FRNSW and @NSWAmbulance have left Sydney for Tasmania this afternoon. They will assist with incident management and remote area firefighting functions as fires continue to burn across the Tasmanian wilderness. pic.twitter.com/OiEOqsdYxh
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) January 20, 2019
Sixteen remote area firefighters and incident management specialists left Sydney today for Tasmania. Firefighters from #NSWRFS and @OEHmedia, supported by @NSWAmbulance, will assist with the ongoing firefighting effort over the next few days. @TasFireServicepic.twitter.com/btETL4FkqE
15 of our best have made their way to #Tasmania this weekend to assist local crews battling blazes in intense heatwave conditions. ? It’s great to be able to repay our neighbours for the hard work they put in during Qld’s severe fires last year. ? @TasFireServicepic.twitter.com/WzWsh15lKW
File photo by the McCall Smokejumper Base of a modern-day smokejumper leaving a Twin Otter.
Dan Green sent us this description of one of the fires he worked on as a smokejumper in McCall, Idaho in 1969. He said it is a true story.
Four smokejumpers were working at the airport when we got the fire call. Jepson, a tall southern Idaho school teacher, Doc, a medical school student during the school year and a favorite companion in bars and a good hand with the ladies, myself, and the Ned, who will remain unnamed to protect the innocent (or guilty depending on your point of view). A small crew of four McCall jumpers getting a break from action in what had been a busy fire year.
I was on the top of the jump list and it was just a matter of time before I went out again on a fire. I told my wife not to expect me home for dinner.
Dry lighting had been forecast, so our crew was working at the airport where fast mobilization was assured. We were cutting grass around the airport lights — hard work with one of those scythes that remind you of the grim reaper. It was 1969, before the invention of weed eaters. Hand scythes were a good way to exercise the muscles that were used in digging fire line and we used them on a regular basis. We were all ready for something more exciting than cutting grass.
Multiple fire smokes had been reported that morning by fire tower lookouts scattered throughout the Payette National Forest, so we loaded a Doug (Douglas DC-3) with sixteen men and all their gear. It was a familiar drill; getting into jump suits, grabbing fire packs, picking out a lucky chute and reserve chute, loading a few other useful items like radios, water cubes, extra food rations (c-rations), chains saws and fire tools, and PGs (personal gear bags). Within fifteen minutes the Doug was rolling down the long runway of the McCall airport. Normally we took a smaller plane on patrol, but it was good to get airborne again and do what we were paid to do.
As the Doug banked into the sun we got our first good view of the towering thunderheads developing around Jug Handle Peak and extending all the way into the Secesh River (named for Civil War rebs that settled that part of Idaho). We could see occasional flashes of lightning cloud-to-cloud but no down strikes. The plane slowly straightened out and headed for the nearest cloud.
You never knew how long these patrols would last so I found a pile of fire packs to camp out on and made myself a makeshift bed. Sleep whenever the opportunity presented itself was something I had learned in a job where twenty hour days was not uncommon.
As I drifted off to sleep I heard “Torg” (Gene Torgenroot), our self-appointed smokejumper comedian, singing his ribald version of “You oughta’ go to North Dakota….” A couple of other buddies, Doc and Freeman started moving around gear for a better spot to rest. I caught a little of their conversation about a girl they had met at the Brass Lamp, our favorite watering hole in McCall. Jumpers were not very sensitive to feminist issues in the sixties, and the conversation was similar to a marine corps barracks.
The nap was short-lived as the Doug banked to avoid a thunderhead, it hit some strong turbulence and gear started sliding around. I grabbed the webbing on the inside of the fuselage to avoid sliding myself. Still no smokes, so some of the boys lit up their own smokes. The Forest Service, sometimes referred to by jumpers as the four-assed Service, provided free smokes on big fires and those who didn’t smoke (like myself) ratholed a good inventory for trading with smokers when they needed a hit of nicotine. A pack or two in my PG bag was always appreciated on a long hike out after a wilderness fire when other jumpers had run out of cigarettes.
Monotony set in as the drone of the twin engine plane made conversation difficult. No sign of fires and it looked like a long patrol. It was early in the fire season and sometimes smoke reports from green fire tower lookouts were unreliable. Right after a storm, steam rising from the ground can form wispy clouds that look like smokes. It took experience to sort these “water dogs” out from the real thing.
The DC-3 eased over the divide between the Payette River and the South Fork of the Salmon and turned up the Secesh River (tributary of the South Fork of the Salmon). I enjoyed a first-hand view of several mountain lakes that I had hiked into the previous summer. They were fantastic fishing for sixteen to eighteen inch cutthroat trout. A long trail-less hike with almost 3,000 foot vertical rise on way in, but definitely worth a return trip. Crossing over the Secesh we spotted a small smoke on a ridge top. The Doug dropped down for a closer look. It was a small spot fire burning in white bark pine and lodgepole at 8,400 feet. The fire was less than a quarter acre so it was a two-man fire. Our spotter, Smalljohn, gave me the heads up and I moved towards the door. The DC3 was easy to get out of, so we typically did two man sticks. First, the plane did a fly over to look at the spot and drop streamers to test the wind.
CAL FIRE Director Thom Porter taking the oath of office. CAL FIRE photo.
The new Director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection had strong feelings about climate change before that was cool. (And some people still deny climate change, the moon landings, and they think the Earth is flat.)
Thom Porter was appointed Director of CAL FIRE by Governor Gavin Newsom on January 8, replacing Ken Pimlott who retired December 15, 2018.
In 2009, ten years after he began working for CAL FIRE, Mr. Porter was featured in a 90-second video produced by Greenpeace USA in which he talked about how climate change was affecting wildland fire.
Below is a partial transcript from the video:
As a firefighter I’m a student of the weather, and I’ve noticed that there’s a change that’s occurred in the last several years.
Thom Porter as he appeared in a 2009 video.
These patterns are not what I have grown up with. They are also not what I have seen in the historical record. We’re starting to see more monsoonal type of weather that’s causing more dry lightning which ignites fires — sometimes thousands of fires in a 24-hour period. We’re stretched for resources when that happens. We don’t have enough fire engines and aircraft to take care of all those fires.
California has a very diverse economy. A lot of it depends on water. If the climate changes and we don’t have the water we need to support that business or the people who live here, we could see all of society start to have to move out of certain areas. California could dry up and blow away.
Before his appointment by the Governor, Chief Porter had served as Chief of Strategic Planning in CAL FIRE’s Sacramento Headquarters since January 1, 2018.
Prior to his CAL FIRE career, Chief Porter worked as a forester in the timber industry in Washington, Oregon and California, developing timber harvesting plans, planning and directing prescribed burns, and managing company safety programs.
He signed on with CAL FIRE in 1999 as a Forester I in the Forestry Assistance Program at the Southern Operations Center. He eventually served as the Southern Region Chief, Assistant Region Chief, and San Diego Unit Chief.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in forest management from the University of California Berkeley and is a Registered Professional Forester.
Thank you, Chief Pimlott, for your years of dedicated service and leadership. I’m honored by the opportunity to serve as CAL FIRE’s Director and continue positioning the department as a leader in forest management and fire protection. pic.twitter.com/IZKgWHOwr3
