Wildfire Awareness Week

This week four five states are observing Wildfire Awareness Week: California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska.  We did some research and were able to find 12 states that in recent years have observed a week to emphasize wildfire prevention. Unfortunately the dates for the week are scattered from the second week in April through late June. If there were agreement for all states to observe it at the same time each year, there could be national fire prevention campaigns to raise public awareness. Synergy.

In a step towards this goal, this year the states of California, Nevada, and Oregon jointly proclaimed May 1-8 (or 2-8) as “Multi-State Wildfire Awareness Week”. We suggest that other states make it their policy to declare the first full week in May as “Wildfire Awareness Week”. Or perhaps it could be a month or so earlier to accommodate the spring fire seasons of some areas. The National Association of State Foresters should coordinate this fire prevention opportunity.

  • Alaska: May 3-9, 2010
  • Arizona: (In Flagstaff [only?] it was April 24-May 1, 2010; In 2008 both NM and AZ had a joint WAW March 29-April 4, 2008)
  • California: first week in May, May 2-8, 2010
  • Colorado: (In 2008 it was June 22-28)
  • Florida: second week in April, April 11-17, 2010
  • Idaho: first full week in June
  • Maine: third week in April
  • Michigan: April 18-24, 2010
  • Montana: (In 2008 it was May 12-16)
  • New Mexico: March 28-April 3, 2010
  • Nevada: May 1-8, 2010
  • Oregon: (first full week of May) May 2-8, 2010
  • Pennsylvania: March 14-20, 2010
  • Texas: (in 2006 it was April 1-8)
  • Washington: May 2-8, 2010

If you are aware of any other states that observe Wildfire Awareness Week, let us know in a response or comment. We’ll add the additional dates as they come in.

Los Angeles to charge homeowners $13 brush inspection fee

The cash-strapped city of Los Angeles for the first time will begin charging residents living in a “wildfire danger zone” a $13 fee for having their home inspected for adequate fire clearance. Firefighters, earning overtime pay on their days off, will check to be sure flammable vegetation within 200-feet of the structures has been cleared.

If the home fails the first inspection the resident will be charged a $300 re-inspection fee. If the city has to hire a contractor to do the work, the homeowner will have to pay a $1,112 administrative fee plus the cost billed by the contractor.

A homeowner can avoid the $13 inspection fee by doing a self-inspection, but they have to provide a signed affidavit, a copy of the Tax Assessor’s map of the property, and photographs showing that the work has been done.

Kids develop system to detect and report fires

Lego Guards
Lego Guards

Six children in Auburn, California came up with an idea for detecting and reporting wildfires. It is one of those relatively simple, why-didn’t-I-think-of-that concepts, but it uses advanced technology. It all started as a First Lego League project, which is a global program created to get children, ages 9 to 14, excited about science and technology.

Here is how the kids explain it on their web site:

Our innovative solution would use computers and people all over the world to watch forests. The system would employ solar powered cameras mounted on poles situated throughout the forest. The video cameras would be continuously panning and would be linked by ethernet radios to a hub (one of the fire watchtowers).

The hub computer would then take the snapshots from the cameras ( a “live” feed) and store them in a web server on the internet. A free “Forest Guard” screen saver would be offered to anyone to put on their computer to show these forest photos.

As people enjoy the photos, they could also be the “eyes” to keep a look out for fires. Our research shows that nothing spots smoke better than a human. If you spot smoke, you press a key on your keyboard and Forest Guard would notify the right people (like the local fire fighters station).

Sony Europe, a sponsor of the First Lego League, became interested in the project and followed the team as they won an international competition in Copenhagen last May. Then the company provided an engineering team to help make the idea into a working prototype.

The first camera was installed in the Tahoe National Forest this winter.

web camera
The team takes its first look at the Forest Guard camera.

Sony Europe has made a documentary about the project. Here is a trailer.

There will be a free screening of the documentary on March 27 at 7 p.m. at the Placer High School Auditorium, at 123 Agard Street, Auburn, California (map).

Cal Fire TV

It turns out that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has produced a series of videos they call Cal Fire TV. Here are a few of them.

Getting air tankers ready for the fire season.
Cal Fire firefighters receive the Medal of Valor (Dec. 14, 2009)

Defensible Space Public Service Announcement (May 4, 2009)

(VIDEOS NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

Other videos include:
Cal Fire Inspects for Defensible Space

Cal Fire Readies its Seasonal Firefighting Force

Congratulations to Cal Fire for these excellent videos.

I found it interesting that the narration for each of the three videos that are embedded above begins with the words “Every day…” or “Every summer…” But they never expected that these three, produced months apart, would be assembled as a group and viewed consecutively.

=========================================

And while we are on the subject of videos, here is one that has NOTHING to do with wildfire. It was shot by Ana Marie Cox, a contributor for Air America and a frequent commentator on news and political shows, including the Rachel Maddow show. It features “bad camera work” and her dog Skeeter, who is enjoying his first snow in the Washington D.C. area. I think Skeeter is about 7-8 months old. The video was probably shot with an iPhone.

Before you watch it, consider yourself warned that Jake Tapper, who may be Ana’s friend Jake Tapper the ABC news correspondent, left the following comment on You Tube about the video:

I just accidentally watched this entire video. Do not make the same mistake I did.

USFS Mexican border fire prevention crew

The Cleveland National Forest, just north of the Mexican border in California, has a unique crew–a border fire prevention crew. Their job is to hike the trails used by illegal immigrants in order to put out still-burning camp fires.

Fire Department Network News has a video report on the crew, the first of a two-part series.

(VIDEO NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

Smokey Bear, 2009 version

Some new new Smokey Bear fire prevention ads have been produced in the last couple of months. Here is one that was uploaded to You Tube yesterday by the Ad Council, which produces the ads.

(VIDEOS NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

The one below was put on You Tube an hour ago by the Ad Council. It is about a guy outside a diner who throws his cigarette onto the ground and is called out by someone in the diner who, like the previous ad, morphs into Smokey.

The next one was released in 2007. It features Bambi and other cutesy forest creatures. Remember it was Bambi being scared by forest fires decades ago that made the public fear ALL wildland fires and made it very difficult to conduct prescribed fires.

Has anyone else noticed that Smokey no longer calls them “forest fires”? He has switched to “wildfires”. When did that happen? In 2007 or before?

In 2008 Wildfire Today told you about a new Smokey ad featuring ATV riders that produced enough criticism that it was pulled and cancelled. An ATV organization complained that it…

“…incorrectly conveyed to the ATV rider that the best way for them to prevent wildfires was to stay at home. Instead, the ad should have encouraged the use of Forest Service-approved spark arresters and limiting travel to approved routes and areas.”

ACORN receives $1M for fire prevention grant

The ACORN Institute, a partner organization of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, this month received $997,402 from FEMA’s Fire Prevention and Safety (FP&S) grant program.

Here is a list of the top 19 recipients of FP&S grants for fiscal year 2008, the most current awards, listed in order of dollar amount.

FY 2008 FP&S awards. From: www.firegrantsupport.com

ACORN also received a FP&S grant of $450,484 in FY 2007.  That grant was for a pilot program to help low and moderate income families conduct in-home fire safety assessments.

According to the grant guidance, eligible applicants for the FP&S grants

“…include fire departments and national, regional, state, local, or community organizations that are recognized for their experience and expertise in fire prevention and safety programs and activities.”

As you can see from the list of the top recipients above, many, but not all of the organizations have a clear association with fire.

ACORN has become a radioactive organization as a result of numerous accusations and investigations, including tax evasion and giving business advice to someone posing as a prostitute.

Fuel reduction funds pulled just before Station fire

Fire Councils are doing a great deal of good work around the country towards educating residents about reducing hazards to make their homes more fire resistant, but the Councils in California apparently are much more hands on, distributing money to contractors to actually remove vegetation.

Here is an excerpt from an article in the Modesto Bee:

Months before a wildfire burned 280 square miles at the edge of Los Angeles, a little-known group was awarded a $178,000 grant to clear flammable brush and tree limbs to protect a mountain neighborhood in the Angeles National Forest.

The work proposed for 90 acres in Big Tujunga Canyon was never done, and the grant was rescinded two days before the massive blaze ignited Aug. 26. Sixty homes were burned in the rugged canyon, by far the greatest concentration of property damage in the huge wildfire.

The ferocity of the fire makes it difficult to say how many homes, if any, might have been spared if the work had been completed. But failure to do the job offers a glimpse into a quasi-public system that provides little transparency while distributing millions of taxpayer dollars for fire protection on private property.

The grant came through the California Fire Safe Council Inc., a nonprofit organization that funneled $13.5 million in 2009 to groups and municipalities for fire prevention and safety projects. Most of the money comes from the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies.

It’s not clear when the council recognized a problem with the Big Tujunga project, but the grant languished for months. No money ever changed hands before it was pulled back.

“The very best use of fire protection money would have been to clear brush in Big Tujunga Canyon – that’s where we lost the homes,” said U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., who questioned why a nonprofit group was needed to steer taxpayer dollars to local groups.

As a nonprofit, it is not subject to open government laws even though much of its funding comes from the government.

“When the federal government wants to build a road, you hire a private sector company to build a road, you don’t establish a statewide nonprofit,” Sherman said. “I don’t know why you would need all these intermediary agencies. … It ought to be transparent, and not just with regard to the canyon but their whole setup.”

Layers of review for each grant include a committee with representatives from federal agencies that makes recommendations to the council. One of the factors considered is a group’s history in fire safety projects and ability to complete the job.

In the case of Big Tujunga, the grant was awarded to a group headed by Ben Furia Means, a fitness trainer, massage therapist and recording engineer with no apparent background in fire safety work.
Means’ group, the Big Tujunga Fire Safe Council, is one of dozens of local councils established around the state that pursue such grants.

Contacted by e-mail, Means did not respond to repeated requests to explain what went awry with the grant. His phone was out of service – his home was among those lost in the fire.

“It is very unfortunate that this much damage occurred,” Means wrote.

Thanks Zachary

Oregon: Prevention Happens

The 1996 Skeleton Fire roared toward the Sundance subdivision near Bend, Oregon with 160-foot flames and an ember shower that ignited homes so fast that firefighters had to cross some off the list. Homes with stacked firewood on the deck and cedar shake roofs were written off, and the fire destroyed 19 homes and burned 17,000 acres. A report in the Eugene Register-Guard details the other results of that fire, one of which is the lesson that it costs a lot less to teach a community to protect itself than it does to fight a subdivision fire.

The fire launched a statewide focus on wildfire prevention in rural communities, according to Tom Andrade with the Oregon Department of Forestry. In 1997, the legislature approved the Oregon Forestland-Urban Interface Fire Protection Act (SB360), which encourages interface property owners to create defensible space around their homes — and penalizes those who don’t.

Interface fires in Oregon are nothing new, but SB360 is a new concept for preventing them — and it’s not without some controversy in a state where many residents don’t want government agencies telling them what they can’t do with their property. The fire-safe recommendations aren’t mandatory. But there is a big incentive:  Residents who don’t comply could be liable for up to $100,000 if a catastrophic fire starts on their property. And the program’s made a lot of Oregon residents into fire safety converts.

“People have come in, they’re up in arms, they’re afraid that government is here to tell them what to do,” said Kevin Crowell with ODF. “Once they understand the program, they’re going, ‘That’s what I do anyway to my landscape and residence.’”

Andrade credits the program and other fire-prevention efforts for a drop in destructive wildfires in Deschutes County. Between 1990 and 2000, wildfire burned 53 homes in the county. From 2000 to September of this year, only two homes have been destroyed.

The ODF recommendations include establishing defensible space around the home, removing needles and leaves from roofs and gutters, maintaining access for fire engines, keeping firewood away from the home during fire season, and clearing flammables from under decks.

More information is available online from the Pacific Northwest Fire Prevention site, and details about Oregon’s Forestland-Urban Interface Fire Protection Act (SB 360) are also online. Central Oregon’s FireFree program is explained on the projectwildfire.org website and the firefree.org site.

Some insurance companies requiring fire inspections in California

Some insurance companies, at least in California, are finally realizing that they should not be offering fire insurance to homeowners that do not assume personal responsibility for making their homes fire safe. Allstate is so freaked out by the claims they have had to pay for homes damaged in wildfires that they stopped selling new homeowner policies in California in 2007.

On September 6, 2008, Wildfire Today quoted a story from Capital Press:

Companies also impose tougher policy conditions. Some have recently started requiring property owners to increase clearances to as much as 1,500 feet of vegetation from around homes in some fire zones. That’s 15-times more clearance than what’s currently required by California law. Indeed, Allstate says that 1-in-5 houses in high-risk areas it has inspected had hazardous brush conditions.

However, California legislation that became effective on January 1, 2009, stipulates that an insurance company can only require more than a 100-foot of clearance if the local fire agency agrees that it is necessary.

Here is an excerpt from a story in the Sacramento Bee:

Since the first of the year, Cal Fire officials have been flooded with calls from panicky mountain and foothills residents seeking fire inspections so they can keep their homeowner’s insurance.

Allen Bengtson said he recently became No. 389 on the Amador-El Dorado Unit’s inspection list after receiving a letter from Allstate.

An inspector under contract to Allstate visited when no one was home and reported concerns about spacing of trees on the rural property between Lotus and Rescue. Bengtson was told he would have to pass an inspection by the local fire agency to renew his coverage.

“The good part is, we’re going out and meeting with really motivated landowners,” said Chris Anthony, a Cal Fire battalion chief in charge of fire prevention.

But deadlines for insurance-related inspections interfere with Cal Fire’s efforts to target high fire-hazard areas and inspect several properties at one time, Anthony said.

Cal Fire’s local resources also are likely to be stretched during the summer months as firefighters are sent to wildland fires throughout the state.

Anthony said about 98 percent of the inspection requests the Amador-El Dorado Unit has received are from Allstate customers.

Insurance companies are a necessary part of the equation in convincing homeowners to make their homes fire safe, and it is great that some of them are finally stepping up to the plate, but it is important that they be reasonable in their damands.