(We’re stepping away from the future of finance to return to our regularly scheduled commentary on other random stuff; we’ll keep touching on a post capitalism future as the spirit leads.)
Smokey the Bear used to tell me that “only I could prevent forest fires.”
Smokey lied.
I have never, not once in my half century of existence on this planet started or stopped a forest fire. I almost burned down an abandoned house once when I was ten, but that was in Saskatchewan, and little chance of the fire leaping into the forest, even though I lived in a town whose name literally meant “forest home”. (I suspect the band of Mennonites who founded the place after coming up across the majority of the great plains saw a tree, stopped and said “this is our home in the woods.” Either that, or they were being ironic. While there were trees about, there weren’t a lot.)
And, while 40 percent of the forest fires in BC are human caused, the majority are caused by lightening and other natural causes (whatever that may be).
Yes, this means that nearly half of the forest fires are caused by people, but it still leaves a majority of them that neither you nor I have any control over.
And say what you want about the “myth of climate change” and how it’s not anthropogenic, that’s cold comfort to the nearly 30,000 people who have been forced from their homes due to wildfires in Alberta.
30,000 people. And it’s only the first week of May as I write this.
Yes, this year is a particularly bad year, but over the last number of decades, the number and intensity of fires has been getting worse, not just here in Canada, but around the world.
But, while it would take a major shift in global policies to slow or even reverse climate change (he says, with an almost unbelievable degree of pie-eyed optimism), there are things you can do to help reduce the chance of your house getting burnt down in the unlikely-but-more-likely-than-it-used-to-be chance of an interface fire here in town.
For instance, when homes are damaged or destroyed by wildfires, the biggest cause of loss by far is from embers thrown by the fire.
We’ve all watched embers from a campfire float into the air ten or twenty feet. But a forest fire can throw embers up to 2 km.
This means that your first mission in being Firesmart is to fireproof your home. As sparks and embers fall from the sky, your goal is to make sure there is no debris on your roof for those sparks to land on and burn. Every summer, clean off leaves and needles and other debris from your roof and from your gutters.
If you have a wooden fence that connects to your home, consider breaking that connection by installing metal gates. Trim the grass around your fences to cut down on fuel for fire.
Once you have you have removed debris from your roof, the next area is the 1.5 m around your house. This is called the noncombustible zone, the immediate zone or the zero zone. In a perfect world, this area would be completely ember resistant. Instead of bushes around your house, consider replacing with gravel or concrete or brick walkways and decks provide a barrier for flames and embers. Again, make sure this area is clean. If you have a wooden deck, make sure the area under it is clean and free of flammable material.
The next space around your house is called Zone 1, though you might call it your “yard.”
This is the space that extends out to ten metres or your property line.
While you don’t need to pave over this area, you still want to make sure it has the appropriate fire protection.
If you plant shrubs or other plant, aim for fire resistant plants, like raspberries. Juniper, on the other hand, is very bad. Deciduous (leafy) trees are much better than coniferous (trees with needles). Poplar, birch, aspen and cottonwood are all good choices, as long as you make sure to rake your yard before fire season. Even if your home doesn’t catch fire, the intense heat from a burning coniferous can damage your house.
I don’t know this off the top of my head. Instead, Firesmart BC has a page at firesmartbc.ca/landscaping-hub/fire-resistant-plants/ that shows you plants both good and bad.
Of course, most yards in Tumbler Ridge feature a fair amount of grass. Fortunately as long as your lawn is well maintained and the verge is trimmed (as it were), that’s a good thing. The target length, according to the BC Wildfire Service’s publication, Firesmart Begins at Home, grass that is 10 cm and under does not burn very fast.
On the other hand, bark mulch can, and does, burn faster than, say, crushed gravel.
Wood piled against a house can also be a major fire hazard. Clean up any such areas regularly, since easily ignited debris often collects here.
A word about sheds and other outbuildings. While your house probably has class A, B or C roofing. This type of roofing (metal, asphalt shingles and clay) is fire retardant, meaning it is slower to catch fire.
However, a lot of the older sheds around town have untreated shake shingles, which is basically elevated firewood. If you have a shake roof on your shed, aim to replace it with shingles ASAP.
For people with yards bigger than 10 m (anyone?), trees should be spaced at least 3 m apart and brush and branches should be removed from below the trees to a height of 2 m.
Is this going to save your home if a wildfire comes racing at the community? Maybe, maybe not. But the more you can do to stop the spread of wildfire on your property, the better your chance of having your home survive.
Because while Smoky might have been overselling his point about me being able to prevent forest fires, the fact is, if he had said “you can do things to prevent your home from being destroyed in the event of a forest fire”, he would have been pretty spot on.
Just not as snappy a catchphrase, though.
There is a FireSmart Begins at Home app you can download, or find the manual at www.firesmartbc.ca.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
