Forest Fire Articles on Mother Earth News

[inthewilderness]

As some of you know, we've had some serious forest fires to deal with over the years. Although two of them got to within 90 feet of our homestead, we survived. Forest fires are a subject near and dear to my heart and I wrote a 2 part series for MotherEarth News which I hope you find of value.

It seems the weather is getting more extreme and more of us are faced with the potential threat of fires, grassland as well as forest. Please consider having an escape plan should the unthinkable happen and consider implementing some of the strategies I've gathered the hard way. Through experience. All the best,
Ron

http://www.motherearthnews.com/home...e-terror-of-forest-fires-part-1-zbcz1605.aspx

http://www.motherearthnews.com/home...e-terror-of-forest-fires-part-2-zbcz1606.aspx

 

[Weaselhwak]

wow you know how to scare me. this has been in the back of my mind one side my cabin is in the woods other side 5 feet from deep woods on other 20 feet so my house is in the woods basicaly no fire break how much fire break did you have i have zero second i do have city water but no the kind of pressure you were using there is a old water ram pump that could be fixed to give me that kind of preasure but with no fire break in a all wood cabin

 

[inthewilderness]

Hi Weaselhawk,
Thanks for writing. That's the whole point of my articles. To get people thinking about this stuff long before trouble shows up. As far as buffer, take another look at the pictures in part 1 to get an idea of buffer. There was none when that picture was taken. Except for a sprinkler line that was cut through the woods effectively encircling us. Most of the green in the last picture was burned in the second fire. But we still retain an oasis of green around us. And that green oasis is the result of sprinklers. I'm unfamiliar with the RAM you are talking about. I suspect it will be woefully inadequate in flow. It might have some pressure but if sprinklers are going to be set up, you want to saturate the area in a hurry and you need both flow and pressure.

 

[Robson Valley]

Thanks, Ron. I think that the escape plan is the first thing that anybody should develop.
Don't just grab stuff and run. This weekend, put all your important papers in a single container.
Mine is on a book case shelf, just to left of my head. I could let the rest of the place go if I had no choice.

Lastly, I think it's really hard to convince people just how fast a wildfire in a conifer forest can move.
Australians face the same in the form of grassland firestorms and eucalyptus bush fires. I saw those.

I've spent a lot of time on the Churchill, from Black Bear Island Lake, down past Missinnipe to Keg Falls.

 

[Bishop]

I think it's really hard to convince people just how fast a wildfire in a conifer forest can move.

The documentation for the International Crown Fire Modelling Experiment (1999) is probably well worth a read for anybody who lives where there is a risk of forest fires.
[video]https://youtu.be/FYup7cYKE3w[/video]

I'm pretty sure there's also wide angle video footage that shows the fire's speed across the test area but haven't tracked it down yet.

 

[Robson Valley]

Just recently, I watched many video clips of the Fort McMurray wild fire (aka "The Beast".)
Best guess from the Fire Boss, making it's own wind, it was running maybe 1,000C. 50-60 mph isn't unusual.

The grass fire which cooked people on the Melbourne/Geelong highway, January 1969, was considered to be a 60mph firestorm.

I fought a little one, many years ago, north of Cranberry Portage in Manitoba.
My task was to stay on the railroad tracks with a back pack sprayer and put out spot fires.
These were caused by flaming dead branches falling out of the sky, some as much as 3' long
and broom-handle thick. Amazing.

 

[inthewilderness]

You're welcome Robson Valley. Thank you for the comment. You have a good idea of this area, and for sure, it is hard to imagine the speed a fire can run. At one point, I buried a metal trash can in the ground with just the lid exposed. If a person had time, it's another option to throw photographs and documents in to protect them as opposed to throwing stuff in a suitcase and running for the boat. We've done both.

Bishop... Thanks for the video link. Both fascinating and horrifying. Vividly brought back that night in 2002 when I watched my world go up in fire and smoke.

 

[Robson Valley]

I've lived in the Boreal Forest biome for no more than 50 years. The genuine threat of a wildfire is always in the back of everyone's mind.
The valley bottom here is ancient Fraser River glacial flood plain, now mostly cleared for agricuture. What few forest fires I've seen here in the past 15 years
run up the mountain sides from lightning strikes. Mostly helicopters with buckets to keep the fire from spreading left or right. Spectacular at night.

Those flatland fires like around your place scare the bejeezlies out of me. Good thing you have a boat and a lake.

Some neighborhoods in Fort McMurray may never be rebuilt. The south end took the biggest hit. Metal and mineral, that's all that's left.
Other houses look OK but the smoke and ash makes them too toxic to ever live in again.