Wildfires in the west, the season has arrived – here’s my 11-step plan
Wildfires in the west, the season is upon us, I’ve been reading about the fires in Utah, Arizona and California, what tragedies. It is easy to understand how fires can burn so violently after a person spends time in an isolated area. Years ago a friend and I were in the Sierra on a camping / hiking trip, we passed through a canyon called “Cuenca José”. Jose Basin is a canyon about 1/2 mile wide and 2 miles long, not very big for a canyon. It is about 500 feet deep and filled to the top with completely dried Manzanita. We stopped at the bottom, the canyon rising 1500 feet above us at about 22 degrees incline. We got out of the truck and looked at him talking about the fire danger, it would be a huge fire. Being in the middle of nowhere they most likely left it to burn, I don’t know if it ever did, that was the last time I went up there. There are many places like José Cuenca in our country.
The fires got me thinking (again) about what I would do in case we had a wildfire on our island that endangered my home. What would you grab to get out, how would you prioritize what I take, and how clearly would you be thinking? It seems like all bad things happen in the middle of the night, it sure seems like most home fires happen, I made a list of 11 things I would do:
1) Get up and get dressed, before going to bed at night I make sure I have clothes placed next to my bed that are easy to put on.
2) Have my 95 year old mother in law get up and go out, make sure she has her clothes ready the night before too.
3) Grab my emergency backpack, one of them has my laptop (my business is on it), medications and emergency plan inside.
Okay, so far so good, it makes sense.
4) Put away my wheelchair, okay, I guess it should be put away, I can walk a short distance so I can escape.
Now it’s starting to get dangerous
5) Save my guitars, see that it is plural, it is not a good sign. Which one will I take? Everyone grabs everyone.
6) I can’t do without my banjo and ukulele, which are essential. (Do you see where this is heading?)
7) Get out the door and dump it all in the dike, then come back for more! (Oh oh)
8) Now take out my mobility scooter, another essential, do not forget the charger!
9) I forgot the tower computer, it has all our photos.
10) I almost forgot the car keys, go get them and you better hurry.
11) The dog! I forgot about the dog!
Holy smoke! Now to reality, if I try to carry all of that, I would need a truck and trailer to carry it all. Numbers 1-2 and 3 everything else is replaceable and insured. Grab my backpack, bring Grandma, put a leash on the dog and go! I have convinced myself that I have less than a minute to do the few things that I have planned, a minute. My guitar is hard to leave behind, but hundreds are made every year, I’m sure I would find replacements. My wheelchair and mobility scooter, well, thousands are made every month. I can’t think of anything more important than grandma, wife, dog, and me. That is the importance of creating a disaster plan, which includes all possible emergency events in your area. Sometimes two or three plans are needed for different types of possible emergencies, however, most of the time, one plan will suffice.
The wildfires I’ve seen, mostly on the news, burn so violently and move so fast that they leave very little time to think about our next moves. It seems that fires are approaching a structure causing it to burst into flames, leaving little time to escape. I came up with the one minute rule after watching a demonstration hosted by the local fire department. (it was a video). Inside a simulated living room there was a Christmas tree, a sofa, a table and chairs. The tree was lit, in less than 1 minute the whole room was filled with fire. (See video here) If a person is asleep during this event, one minute is a long time for a fire to burn. I reckon I have an escape time of only 1 minute, a very sobering thought.
The area around us is kept under control, people cut the brush and are aware of the dangers. We are not immune, but the residents have it under control. There are 200 acres of pasture across the road, the cattle keep it pretty well controlled. Across the river (it’s actually a swamp) there are about 500 acres of pasture, it catches fire from time to time, quickly put out by the caretaker. Beyond the island on the other side of the swamp is the “Diablo Range” of mountains, it is shredded wheat, a wild area from San Francisco south to the vine, south of Bakersfield. It could burn forever, in fact I sit in my chair working and every now and then I see a forest fire on the side of the mountain, which quickly spirals out of control.
Are there any proactive tasks we can take to eliminate the hazard? However I am not sure, we will most likely never be able to control or predict wildfires, we can perform some tasks to reduce the damage. As a community we may be able to keep entire rows of houses out of the fire, perhaps where a development recedes into a wilderness area beyond the back fence lies the danger, if weeds grow there we can keep them plowed. Life in the mountains, extremely rural, tall trees surrounding the house, oh man, prevention would be difficult. Clearing the dirt within 100 feet of any structure would help, but there are also farm animals. It’s nerve-wracking just imagining it, sorry to the people who are dealing with it as I write this.
So it gives back to grandma, to dog, to wife, to me and if I can grab my gear, well, more power to me. I don’t think my guitars, ukes, banjo, or computer is a hill I want to die on. The list is too easy to add and impossible to delete, prioritizing what is important is the most important task in your evacuation plan. Forest fires are natural, they are fine as long as they are in “nature”, it is where they meet civilization where the problem begins. Wildfires always leave me thinking “man, I wish I could help.”
What do you think, what would you grab? Do you have a plan? Do you have emergency backpacks installed in convenient places? Maybe you live where there is no threat of wildfire, that’s a good place to be.