last time I saw plume of smoke like this was the rim fire I couldn't see the little closest hill across from me
hope its not like rim fire
hope its not like rim fire
I hope that's as close as it gets to your property.last time I saw plume of smoke like this was the rim fire I couldn't see the little closest hill across from meView attachment 4475
hope its not like rim fire
I am struck by how brown everything is.last time I saw plume of smoke like this was the rim fire I couldn't see the little closest hill across from meView attachment 4475
hope its not like rim fire
I'm glad they banned the asphalt shingle there. I've always thought they were crap. Heavy, expensive and a relatively short life span. I have fiber cement siding, and a metal roof on my home here. Not only fire resistant but lower maintenance too. And I got a discount on the insurance rate. Yeah, a little fore thought can make your place a lot safer from Mother Nature. And it dosent have to cost more either.I watch a snippet of news from the US about these dreadful fires and they were interviewing a family who were justly terrified they could lose their home, they had set up a couple of water pumps to their pool which they hope to use to spray water onto their roof from a jerry rigged sprinkler system ( so they could turn it on and still bug out) the chap slightly baffled me because he was saying " What other precautions could I take to protect my home? " but he was standing in front of his house and it had loads of trees planted probably within 15 feet of his home !!!!!!!!!! GET YOUR CHAINSAW OUT. Another dud had removed those funny cheap nasty little asphalt roof tiles that are used on many US home ( illegal as hell over here) and fitted galvanised corrugated steel roofing sheets which is much more resistant to burning embers ( but obviously not super heated air from real wild fires)
Slate is my ideal roof, just too darn expensive over here. Great mix of durability and style.Most british roof approx. 95% are either Slate tiles, Concrete tiles or metal, a small amount are thatch which burns very easy, some are sod or turf types, and a bit of glass fibre or bitumen coated.
Yeah, if I lived out there with the drought, the lawn would be the first thing to go. Gravel and cactus!if you looking out about just left of bout 11 o'clock its a lake oops I mean mud puddle lol I have my ground totally clean of grass so pretty safe more than fire regulations .
That sounds like California. There's no such restrictions in the rest of the western states, with the possible exception of cities.One major issue on the west cost of the US is politics. In a lot of areas, you are NOT allowed to cut the trees, even the downed ones, without a lot of permits and paperwork. The "so called" environmonlist really don't care about you house as long as they can get their way, screw you.
When I was fighting wildfires, low these many years ago, the engine I was a crewman on responded to a fire in a canyon burning up toward hilltop homes. My Fire Captain told me to do a circle check of the properties for defensibility. When I came back from my circumnavigation of the 5 homes I reported "The 2 on each side are a led pipe cinch. [Those had Spanish tile roofs, stucco exterior walls, and good foliage clearances.] but the one at the end is doomed!" It had an untreated ceder shake roof, rough sawn Douglas Fir siding, and scrub oak brush all the way up under the redwood deck that hung out over the canyon on 3 story tall common steel columns. Steel looses most of it's structural strength at ~900 degrees Fahrenheit or ~280 Celsius. At that point I had already slung a hose pack on my back and picked up a brush hook when I was struck from behind by the enraged owner of that end house. While carrying ~90 lbs / 41 kgs on my back there was no way I was going to successfully defend myself with my hands so I swung the handle end of the brush hook at him hitting his shoulder hard and forcing him back right into the loving arms of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers who had come running to my aid. I dropped the hose pack just in time to stop the rest of the crew from beating him senseless. They had all grabbed up brush hooks and Pulaski tools. [The first looks like a shortened halberd of the curved hook variety that is sometimes sharpened on both edges. The second is a combination axe and grub hoe.] Having prevented the mayhem which nearly fell on him I said "Extreme emotional distress" to the 2 officers which is the legal description of a type of temporary insanity in California, USA. I threw my hosepack back on and started the hose lay that would save the 2 homes on the right side of the cul-de-sac. The rookie that was helping me asked me why I had said "There goes one happy fella!" as we started the hose lay. I replied "Haven't you heard that ignorance is bliss?" and left him to figure it out from there. About 30 seconds later he said "Tom your not right" meaning that I was a little crazy. I shrugged and went back to eating war surplus K rations.I'm glad they banned the asphalt shingle there. I've always thought they were crap. Heavy, expensive and a relatively short life span. I have fiber cement siding, and a metal roof on my home here. Not only fire resistant but lower maintenance too. And I got a discount on the insurance rate. Yeah, a little fore thought can make your place a lot safer from Mother Nature. And it doesn't have to cost more either.
Those "Lot of areas" Are National Park or Forest Wilderness Areas. Those are the only parts of the State of California were you cannot cut a tree including downed ones because that is inconsistent with Wilderness Area Management Plans. Much of the State of California is Federally managed land and a part of that land has been set aside as wilderness area for wilderness recreation such as deep back country hiking and camping. You want to talk about politics. The wealthy ranchers believe that anything that prevents them from overgrazing federal land is an attack on their Open Range Rights. Read rights that never existed. Grazing on any land has always been at the sufferance of the owner. The ranchers and farmers fought range wars over that during the wild west era and like it or not the courts always ruled in favor of the land owner. But those rich multi thousand head cattle herd robber barren ranchers have never excepted that there can be any limits on their behavior or their pillaging of public lands.One major issue on the west cost of the US is politics. In a lot of areas, you are NOT allowed to cut the trees, even the downed ones, without a lot of permits and paperwork. The "so called" environmonlist really don't care about you house as long as they can get their way, screw you.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/01/how_regulations_made_californias_fires_worse.htmlAccording to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), shrubs and live and dead vegetation are the most important factor in forest fires, being an easily ignitable fuel source that helps spread the flames quickly over vast distances. For a dry and warm state prone to fires, regular clearing measures removing this vegetation should be common sense. However, California has enacted several laws that heavily restrict such vital fire-preventing measures as logging, removal of dead trees, and clearing of dry underbrush.Those "Lot of areas" Are National Park or Forest Wilderness Areas. Those are the only parts of the State of California were you cannot cut a tree including downed ones
https://www.neilgunton.com/doc/?o=1mr&doc_id=19364
decent enough write up about a guy prepping his home for DIY firefighting >>> good practical advice along with a lot of equipment links
I fought wildland fires in California for six years. 3 years with the agency now called Cal Fire and 3 years with the US Forest Service. Out of that experience I can assure you that whoever told you that was blowing smoke were the sun don't shine. There is NOWHERE in the State of California that we could not order improved clearances for anything that would burn. We would order wood racked on a porch or patio removed to 50 feet away from a home. The other thing the occupants could do to keep it handy for use was to store the firewood in a very tightly enclosd non combustible container still 10 feet away from any combustible structure. Those who did not comply with a clearance order had the offending ground cover fuels removed by a State fire crew during the off season. The entire cost was a lien on the property that was due prior to your property tax because a debt to the State always comes out of any money received before the taxes do. The owner who considered fighting that bill would be told by any attorney they consulted, who was a member of the State Bar, that if they didn't pay the remaining bill and their taxes they would eventually loose the property to a Lien to the State Sale. I'm still in touch with some of the permanent party fire control people I worked for. If that had changed I would have heard about it. Nobody in the State of California can avoid the removal of anything combustible from around their home. In the most dangerous areas complete clearance to bare mineral earth with only non combustible cover out to 100 feet including tree overstory. When we issued such an order the State Fire Prevention Officers would follow it up until it was abated or the property was seized for non payment of abatement cost. Some people were foolish enough to fight that based on some imagined castle doctrine and they always lost. This I know from personal experience. To convince me that anyone can prevent the removal of trees shrubs, grass, weeds, or, yes, even fire wood should be prepared to quote chapter and verse from California Law or I will know they are spouting horse hockey.One major issue on the west cost of the US is politics. In a lot of areas, you are NOT allowed to cut the trees, even the downed ones, without a lot of permits and paperwork. The "so called" environmentalists really don't care about your house as long as they can get their way, screw you.
90% of all ground cover fires are Human caused. Some originate from an uncontrolled ignition within a structure. If the dictates you are referring to are the laws that I helped to enforce I would think that such fires would be well down in the "Source of heat of ignition" and "Form of Material first ignited" categories. That is not to allege that I have run the numbers. I'm just guesstimating from all of the Fire Cause and Origin Reports I prepared in 45 years of doing fire suppression.I wonder how many of the wildfires fires that destroyed homes and took lives where started by people not following these dictates?
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