Neighborhood Disaster Preparedness Group

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/speci...ld-sonoma-county-sees-rise?artslide=0&sba=AAS

This section is the closest - I think - for above article to fit in.

Article per title.

Note acronym "COPE".

Ref the mentioned term "nurse practitioner", I consider them the equivalent of physicians.

Note "Those 'shelter in place' plans have had to be adjusted ... ".

I like term "'firewise' community".

That Russian River escape route is interesting.

Here, rather than red flags, are the at ready black square on red flags: hurricane flags. Tomorrow starts hurricane season and this morning must reinforce the barricades to keep 'em out.

Those Californians are doing this "right" even if known to the STATE of California that COPE hinders the migration of certain stranded sea turtles or more current fad.

End of transmission

 

I commend their efforts, and hope they can make a true impact. We have a forum member here who was devastated by those fires. He was as well prepared as anybody on earth. When the wind changed the fire direction he had thirty minutes to get out. They survived, I'm sure, better than most, but he was completely wiped out. There weren't two bricks standing in what was left of his house. Complete rubble.

I will be the first to admit fire terrifies me. I have no idea what anybody can do to escape or prepare for massive fire besides evacuate, and evacuate quickly. I don't have the resources to fireproof my home. I don't think any of the people in California do either. Improving the road will help. Using the river to evacuate will help if the river goes someplace where you can get help.

I would be interested to see what others have done for fire prevention. I am open to suggestions.

 

Good morning M101,

Glad to hear a forum member got out safely. Yes, indeed, much of all this is about fate.

Add: "the people of Virginia, North Carolina, ..." Fire protection preparedness is undergoing a major national change. Besides the preparedness, recently added - slightly only so far - is the resilience efforts even prior to preparedness. This means the entire area must do certain "things" or the local preparation for fire protection is nil. I mentioned yesterday, we could have someone make a cooking fire 10 miles - even 20 miles from here - and 2 hours later the entire area is encompassed ... Smokey T. Bear can best explain. As of now forest fires = perished.

I know of a couple in my old NGO responder group (and COPE type equivalent for regular meetings on disaster preparedness) had as part of their web gear kit a Forest Fire Protection Shelter (about 6 x 9 x 4 pouch) that's US Forest Service approved. My view was they don't work especially when the weight means carrying less drinking water.

Actual home fire prevention here is, in reality, an exercise in vain. Even with a successful dash to the truck, the roads are not passable for escape.

 

My cousin was putting on a new roof. I talked him into investing in a metal roof and clearing out around his home. A fire burned through the area and when he got home the fire crew was camped out on his porch. His neighbours were burned out but his home was defensible so they put their effort into his home.

Clearing brush and ladder fuels only costs time. When it is time to replace your roof, use metal. It will cost more but what great insurance. Concrete siding boards like Hardyboard will do a bunch and you can do one side at a time as funds allow. You can set up a sprinkler system to wet things down for very little.

 

I recently discovered this excellent 41 page PDF to address fire suppression in forested property (hattip to Flight): https://knowyourforest.org/sites/default/files/documents/Reducing_Fire_Risk_full.pdf

It was brought up in this excellent thread about firefighting in another group I belong to:

https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/preparing-for-and-surviving-fires.3737/


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It is long but well worth the read. Thanks for sending.