I have mentioned forest fires a number of times in my posts. I have taken liberties on the topic title to get your attention. It is a subject that is important to us and I have no intention of trivializing it. I'll relate a few experiences and then get to the bottom line. We are tired of watching news coverage of toasted neighborhoods and homes. If just one of the forum members gets something out of this post it will be worthwhile. In the 11 years we have been out here, we've had 4 scares of watching the mushroom clouds swirling skyward within a mile of us. Many times we have gone running to the boat. Twice those fires have gotten a little too close. Like 90 feet from the house.
The year after we built the house, we were sandwiched between 2 big fires. Each about 20 miles away. You assume risks when you are in the wilderness and we knew we would ultimately have to deal with a fire, but we had no idea of the scale. One of our best purchases to this day is our bright orange survival suits. Don't be afraid to buy one if you live remote. To keep this relatively short, it burned for months. It ultimately got to us. My wife was evacuated several days before it arrived. I was out here alone. Fire crew came in the afternoon to fuel pumps and check on things and then left. Before leaving that day, the pilot told me not to worry, fire was a long ways away. Sounded good to me.
A few hours later I heard the freight train coming. The freight train was the fire and the sound it was making sounded like a freight train. It has that sound when it becomes so intense it is sucking surrounding air. Shortly after that I went to the shoreline and looked 4 miles down the lake. All I saw on the horizon was a wall of orange and red flame surely 75 feet above tree tops. You talk about dry mouth. It was instant and I needed some water. I spent that night literally in the lake, in the boat or on an island depending on the situation. Most islands burned. The fire storm rolled up both sides of the lake and I was surrounded by fire. Although I was safe in the middle of the lake, as far as I could see, the world was on fire. It moved faster than you could run. I spent the next day playing fireman on hot spots and our place was saved although it did get to within 90 feet of the house.
Last year, we had another fire and this time my wife was here. We watched as a wall of flames approached our home and the smoke completely obliterated it. All we could do was bob in the boat and hope for the best. We survived again. That fire also burned for a couple months and the fire got to within 75 feet of the house, jumped over it and started a fire in front. This fire finished the job the first fire left behind 10 years earlier.
For anybody living in forested areas, I have some firsthand advice. Don't panic if you see smoke but don't take it for granted even if it is far in the distance. I have seen fires move 5-10 miles in a day. If you live in a forested area, consider burying a trash can in the ground to throw some photo albums or whatever in, if you have the time to safely do so. Consider building with metal siding or other fireproof material. Don't have an open crawl space under the house where embers can blow under.
And finally, what saved our home twice? Sprinklers. Both our own system and the fire crews. The Spring ritual is to head to the roof and install 2 sprinklers at each end of the roof. I also have full length trees (approx 20-25 feet long) cut and have a sprinkler attached to the top of that tree. You pick locations around your house where you can stand these trees back up like a big flag pole and either WIRE to another smaller tree or fashion a set of teepee legs to it to be free standing. Make sure you use wire, not string or rope. The higher those "flag poles" the more coverage and better the protection. All the sprinklers go to a manifold. A Honda water pump with 1 1/2 in. fire line delivers water to the manifold. The basic premise with this is that you are trying to create a dome of humidity around your house. The longer you can let the pump run and soak the ground the better.
At the very least, have a plan for protecting your home. That plan should at least have a couple of basic lawn sprinklers mounted to the top of your roof and attached to whatever reliable water supply you have. Although half a million acres has been toasted around here, recovery is already underway. The surrounding hillsides are green with 5 foot pine and spruce plus taller poplar and birch. It is the natural progression of things and we are much safer now. Plus there are now blueberries and cranberries everywhere and it is the perfect habitat for wildlife. I hope this helps someone. Thanks for reading. Ron
