CA Wildfires

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Brawley? Isn't that close to Petticoat Junction?

Bob

Jim Thompson wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

maybe there's a reason why early settlers built in adobe? Or where the "carbon" in Carbon Canyon originated??

(BTW,why was this copied to a binaries NG?)

Is it possible to build a fireproof(externally) house?

Tile/metal/concrete roof,block walls,etc....

Not really.

The best measures are controlled burns and fire breaks. I'm sure neither was done.

Cheers

innews: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

The houses that burned around here (I live in Poway CA, right on the edge of this week's Witch Creek fire and the 2003 Cedar Fire) are typically tile roof, stucco exterior. The fire usually starts in the exposed wooden eaves or by radiant heating through the windows of the interior contents. They interviewed a fire fighter on TV Monday and he said that by the time smoke starts seeping out of the roof tiles, the house is a written off and the firefighters work on the next house. If it were a single house on fire, they would tear open the roof and douse the flames, but when a whole street is at risk, they don't have the time or manpower for that.

messagenews:Xns99D3E73DB5350jyanikkuanet@64.209.0.85...

What is your concl

messagenews:Xns99D3E73DB5350jyanikkuanet@64.209.0.85...

New houses are built to very good standards. Tile roofs are the first, big improvement. Eaves is 2nd, as they trap embers. Earthquake code prevents use of bricks and such.

Scorched earth is pretty fire retardant, true, but not a pretty fire retardant.

You might want to GoogleEarth the area before being so sure. Fire breaks and brush clearance are de rigueur.

Cheers, James Arthur

innews: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

AIUI, after tile roofs and eaves improvements, attic vents are the next weakness, being a point-of-entry for flying embers.

Sunday I personally saw a several-km long wall/line of fire leap 1km with a single gust.

Best wishes, James Arthur

innews: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

It doesn't even take embers. The air is so hot that blowing through an attic or eave vent can set the wood on fire.

...Jim Thompson

innews: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

True, if the fire's that close. Vent openings allow propagation at even larger distances, as embers can carry fire large distances, far ahead of the heat.

Cheers, James Arthur

Fire breaks don't work well when winds are blowing >50 knots, humidity is

There was an article in yesterday's Orange County, CA Register about some neighborhood that escaped pretty much unscathed as the fire raged around them.

What they had done is got together, hired a crew, and cleared all of the dry brush for about 200 yards around the neighborhood. The fire went all around this little island of cleared land.

The ones who buy multi-million-dollar log cabins in the middle of a pine forest pretty much deserve what they get.

Hope This Helps! Rich

innews: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

We went out in the back yard one Sunday morning. It smelled a little funny, and little pieces of black stuff were falling out of the sky. It was the Oakland Hills fire, just 2 years after the 89 earthquake.

We went over to Beacon Street, with a view across the bay, and there was a miles-wide wall of fire. The hottest spot looked to be in Berkeley, on the hill above the Claremont Hotel. It looked like the Gates of Hell.

There are some places in Marin County, around Mill Valley, that could and probably will be worse. Cul-de-sacs with lots of fancy houses, steep canyons with tiny 1-lane access roads, choked with brush and eucalyptus trees, aka green firebombs.

If safety is your main goal in life, don't come to California.

John

Couldn't a neighborhood just get together for a "controlled burn party"?

You'd probably need a permit - and you do this in the spring, when it's starting to rain, or just when the rains are starting to dry up, and burn maybe 1/2 acre at a time, surrounded by a dozen volunteers with big hoses and extinguishers and stuff.

Oh, and a guy with some kind of brush cutter e.g:

Although, I guess this coming year, they won't need to. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

innews: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

The smoke reached Arizona yesterday afternoon... really bad visibility from my place toward the southwest.

...Jim Thompson

I would think *economics* would play a huge role in that

--same reason prairie dwellers built theirs out of sod.

The >>The best measures are controlled burns

James Arthur wrote:

I like Grise's "controlled burn party" notion, but for a lot of stuff hiring a guy to graze his goats seems an even better idea.

A big problem is folks planting non-indigenous stuff. Succulents[1] and gravel are apt landscaping ideas in the desert southwest. . . [1] I think those rosette plants look really cool. When I planted aloe vera, my biggest problem was that I got too many volunteers sprouting.

Well, you can't make them completely fireproof, but there are a lot of things you can do.

First, stucco does have good fire resistance properties, as do tile roofs. But, you need to be careful that your eaves are closed, so that heat doesn't build up there and burn. Also, curtains can get enough IR through the windows to ignite, so metal venetian blinds can be better.

If you look at a typical fire site, you will see some homes standing virtually untouched. They often are well built, with no vegetation next to the house, etc.

Charlie

Charlie, Are you anywhere near the fires?

...Jim Thompson

That must've been quite spectacular.

I've now twice seen big fire, but I've never seen it gallop like this before. The wind gods were kind, this time.

Cheers, James Arthur

I lived in San Pablo at the time, about 12 miles north. Not knowing how far the fire would reach, I gassed up the cars and sat tight, watching the news. That evening, after it was pretty much contained, I drove to Berkeley and looked up at the hills. The whole hillside, from Berkeley into Oakland, which would normally be lit up from streetlights looked like an angry bank of glowing campfire coals.