Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Are we being fire attacked tonight?

From the horses mouth,

https://scontent.fden3-1.fna.fbcdn....f60ad6ff1591a823dbca7033&oe=5F80BDD0

Discredit where discredit is due.

Please dont change my message, even though you are correct!

I would be interested in your observations as I'm planning fall/winter projects to push out the boundaries of our fire protection zone. We are also revising our fire evacuation planning (even though it is highly unlikely we would leave). We are breaking the planning into 10, 30 and 60 minute segments, based on a guess as to how much time before the fires arrives at our house. We have always considered a fire coming from the West to be the most likely so up to now that has been our focus. The two fires this year that could impact our place were to the SE and N, so I'm looking at things more broadly.

Hey logger I'd bet your more in tune than I am on the subject. I've not had to worry about it my last two houses. I'm pretty good here at the new place as well but might as well take some precautions.

One big thing in that video was the green belt around the house. Lots of those places had dry grass right up to the buildings. That's more or less a given that the home will get fire exposure with a trail of dead and dry material leading to the structure. Something I'm going to be figuring out is the role of shade trees in transporting fire to the structures. Which ones are best, how far away is safe, etc

I went down yesterday and bought the materials to build a house and shop rooftop sprinkler system. I had to back order some 3/4x1/2 saddle tees, but otherwise it's a slam dunk. I'm going to use pvc pipe, but plan on painting it to resist sun damage, unless someone has a better idea for pipe. Lay flat hoses seem sloppy. I will install king automatic drains in the pipe network so when it shuts off it drains itself, to eliminate freezing and breakage. It'll run off a garden hose hooked to a pipe coming down off the roof at the end of the house.

One thing I did when developing this place was immediately upgraded the well pump with a larger volume unit and installed large enough pvc pipe around the property to make full use of the pumps ability. If anyone plans on putting out a fire by hooking up a garden hose to the faucet coming out the side of their house they've got another thing coming. By the time you've run through all the tiny little pipes in your house you don't get any volume out the faucet on the outide of your home.

Instead, run some pvc pipes around the property that can handle some volume. If you have fire fighting risers out in the pucky brush make them galvanized risers and metal faucets or fire hose adapters so they don't melt in a fire and release all your water when you need it most. If you live on acreage you could also run aluminum pipes above ground if digging isn't practical. Anything to get water out where you need it. I've only got an acre so my problem isn't like yours, as I remember your place you've got some beautiful land up there.

I'm still looking at bare dirt most of the way around so I have choices, but sprinkler systems play a huge part. Without water, everything will be dry and vulnerable here due to 6 months or more with high temps and no appreciable rain. I envy those places that are green all summer, but the price you pay for that is well, rain, and bugs maybe? Don't know, don't live there.

Anyhow, water around and on top of the house, careful use of trees and fences too close to the structures, and a looped gravel driveway is my defense plan. May do hardiplank siding next year if money and time allow.

I feel really horrible for so many of our neighbors that are suffering, but if anything good comes of things like this like better awareness, than we need to embrace it and learn to adapt best we can.

Don't get all secure with water as a defense system, water and electricity are the first things to go in rural settings. Bare mineral soil fire breaks, enough to make your wife howl in outrage, is the only thing that can be relied on.

Part of the overall plan should include a generator and fuel supply. I'm thinking buried propane tank. Looks like Generac makes some. 127 cubic feet per hour consumption under full load. Seems like a lot of fuel, How would a person convert cubic feet to say a 250 gallon propane tank?

If I owned a house in a fire prone area there wouldn't be a piece of vegetation with 100 yards of it and a poured concrete walkway 8 feet wide would encircle the place. I admit, it would make it look fairly sparse. But not as sparse as a burned out shell of a house.

It seems to me that a company specializing in fire resistant houses would be big business over there in the fire belt.

Concrete block/brick construction with a metal roof would be a good first start.

We got three Evac refugees staying in our homes from PDX to the Coast.

Helping family makes the angels smile...I think DeFlave said that, once.

😎

Bad news, fire moving towards one buddy's and one aunt's house then around the hill 2 friends' and their parents places, east side of Colton. Damned close. Local volunteers been holding a line all night, trying.


Heard from the firelines, nobody knows where the stand down order came from last night. No substantiated news of arson in Clackamas County. Today, it's cooler calmer and a bit of humidity but make or break for many residential areas.

Frustrating to be so far, can't do anything and details void.

Hardiplank siding would be a good upgrade on any wood structure. A metal roof would eliminate the threat of embers. How fire resistant are standard shingles?

Eves will getcha.

Understood. Just wanted to make the point that a lot of what has and hasn't happened in those places has been taken out of the hands of those supposedly in charge.

If you live out in fire country Metal roofs are the only good option

FB 2

When we built our house and shop we built in roof sprinklers and we used them once in 2007 and probably won't again. We found that with wind, the water didn't really go where needed and that with a metal roof and hardie plank siding, we had better use for the water.

flintlocke

Agreed. That is why we have a 24 kw generator to run our water pump (both in the shop next to the house) and 4 large pressure tanks to support a 1.5" fire hoses at 3 locations around the house/shop. We have 7000 gallons of water underground that will gravity feed to the house at 35 psi (which is stepped up by our pump to 70 psi). I have put together a 550 gallon fire trailer and pump, but want to significantly upgrade it over the winter. I plan to take the existing tanks pump and hose and put it on a sled that I can lift into the back of our 5 yd dump truck so that we can have additional mobile capability.

I’ve been recruited to take my trailer into town to help move more stuff...Not from the Clackamas area fires, but from Crescent, Oregon.

I guess winds might push the fire more East.

Come on rain!

😎

It was a peaceful fire though. Probably started to warm himself too. Innocent intentions. Or it was a Trump supporter posing as antifa. Yes that has to be it.

Just imagine how much better it would be for all these malcontents to put their efforts into helping with fire relief efforts instead of destruction.

Fb,

ask your local FF agency what they recommend in fire breaks and what they consider defensible. Ours would like 100' with nothing over 4" tall, but say my 40' wide one before it gets to the fenced lawn area is pretty good and they'd likely try to defend my place. Even with me leaving a sagebrush or so for the quail to hide in if a hawk flies by, they said it's not really an issue compared to many other places around here. You can see the weed whacked area outside the fence past the wishing well to the taller weeds out by the road.



I have a plan for the future too. I think I'm going to put in some sort of winter grain in that strip, all the way to the road, and cut it back when fire season starts, use it instead of buying straw for my chicken coop. Any grain that comes in will just be free food for them.

The other Side of the house is a gravel driveway with mostly dirt past that after about 15' of gravel from the house, then a dry creek in the summer. Couple of junipers out there, not tall enough to reach the house if they topple.

House has hardiboard, but an asphalt shingle roof which is my major concern for embers. Our well is not good enough to run continuous if we have to leave and put a sprinkler up there. Probably could work with a timer system. 20 min on, 40 min off for the well to refresh during drought years.

Looking into a 1200-2400 gallon tank for storage too. Already talked to the fire agency, I'll put a firehose fitting on it but they said the could go in the top access and pump it out if necessary.

I'm also planning on moving my woodpile 20'-30' further out in the back of the house, and making an access road all the way around the place. That mowed area out front goes around to the south where the woodpile is, firewood guy just drives it back and dumps it there for me to split and stack. Eventually, I may consider gravel all the way around, but likely just keep it mowed to 4" or less. If you go with bare dirt, so much the better.

Different situation here than for you, most of our surrounding area is sagebrush/grassland. And we have a two track road about 100 yards west of us on the BLM road that will serve as a bit of a firebreak coming from that area. It will provide access for the firefighters to the "back forty" too.

Sounds like you got it goin' on !!

Wish I had the resources to do all that, of course, you're likely in a more wooded area.

I've always got my eyes open for an old fire trailer or truck just to have handy for me and the neighbor's use. Keys will always be in it, and a solar battery maintainer on charge too.