Wildfire Preparedness: The Five Aspects of Readiness

A classic 70’s tune gives us the lyrics, “She ran calling ‘Wildfire’…..” Then a love song, but today, possibly the beginnings of an action / adventure / horror movie. With rainfall low, and temperatures and winds high, the wildfires we’re currently battling across the country are heavily taxing our first responder assets. More fires will surely follow if these conditions continue.

First responder assets aside, these fires have affected local civilians. Thousands have evacuated, and many find nothing but charred vacant lots when they return. What are some innovative ways civilians can protect themselves, their property, and actually help firefighters in the process?

At the household level, most of us have smoke detectors. That’s good, because in a house fire, as in a wildfire, where there’s smoke, there’s F.L.A.M.E.:

Family – Something as massive as a wildfire will affect your whole family. Prepare them now.

Landscaping – Simple and subtle steps can make your property much more fire resistant.

Awareness – In an emergency, time is crucial. Stay aware of the threat and get the warnings early.

Moisture – Some say you fight fire with fire. We say you fight fire with water.

Evacuation – Even after taking all the other steps, a wildfire is something best avoided.


Family
A prepared and involved family is far more able to handle any type of disaster than those who wait for last-minute instruction. Therefore, one of the best things you can do for your family is to prepare them for one of the most common and least forgiving enemies; fire.

1. Take the family on a fire-safety tour through the house. Locate dangers such as overloaded electrical outlets and safety items such as extinguishers and escape routes.

2. In emergencies, redundancy is our friend. You should have more than one smoke detector, fire extinguisher, and escape route from rooms or the house. Hint: If you’re a heavy sleeper, buy a “baby monitor.” Put the transmitter near the farthest smoke detector and the receiver in your bedroom.

3. Make sure everyone in the family knows how to use a fire extinguisher, and how to call 911.

4. Have regular fire drills. Let each family member have a turn being the one who discovers the fire and who has to warn others. On at least every other drill, have everyone evacuate blind-folded on their hands and knees (while exercising due safety) to mimic the realistic conditions of a fire evacuation.

5. Revisit every family emergency plan with the whole family during wildfire season and certainly if one is in your area and possibly heading your way.


Landscaping
Though tragedies usually take the lead in newscasts, stories still abound of how some homeowners managed to protect their properties from wildfire by simple and subtle changes with their landscaping and home. Take these steps now, since in a fire, time is of the essence.

1. Your main landscaping consideration is to remove any dead, dry vegetation, whether on the ground or in your trees, that could transfer fire to your house. Since this aspect of wildfire preparedness has been adequately covered by others, here are a few good outside sources:

- General wildfire landscaping tips: http://www.firewise.org/resources/files/wildfr2.pdf .

- Florida wildfire landscaping pointers: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FR/FR07600.pdf .

- More on landscaping during wildfire season: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FR/FR04700.pdf.

- Fire-resistant plants: http://web1.msue.msu.edu/emergency/pubs/wildfire_resistant.pdf.

2. Be ready to seal your house before evacuating. Create covers for any opening on your home such as attic vents (roof turbines can be covered with metal trash cans), crawlspace openings, etc. Gather your material (such as plywood) and cut, paint, and label (where it goes) each cover now, keeping them stored on your property for immediate use. Put a couple of hooks over each opening you might cover and drill corresponding holes in the plywood covers. The hooks will hold the cover in place while you drill in the screws. This allows one person to do the job and frees up others to perform other necessary tasks. Hint: Also make covers for your windows (including garage door windows) just as if you lived in a hurricane zone.

3. Create a “fire tool box” and include everything needed to prep your house in advance of a wildfire. Store extra garden hoses, water sprinklers, “Y” connectors for extra hoses, wrenches to turn off your gas, rolls of heavy-duty aluminum foil (to cover the openings you didn’t make covers for), machetes and gloves for last minute brush clearing, etc. Store extra tools because you won’t have time to replace tools that might have been broken or lost.

4. Make sure first responders can see your home’s address. Put your house number on your mailbox, near your front door, and painted on the curb by your driveway.


Awareness
A common theme in all our publications and presentations is the fact that in an emergency, our most crucial asset is time (see our other articles at http://www.disasterprep101.com/). The two key elements of time in a wildfire are one, to have as much done in advance as possible, and two, get as early a warning as possible.

1. Don’t wait for a wildfire to approach to start your landscaping. Perform that now and keep your property as fire-retardant as you can.

2. Don’t wait for the smell of smoke to warn you a fire is on its way. If fire conditions are right, monitor news channels and listen for community warnings.

3. Learn to recognize your community warnings. Does your community have a reverse 911 system? Sirens? Will the local TV or radio station broadcast the alert? If your community doesn’t have any of these systems, why not start them in your neighborhood? At the very least, have a phone tree.

4. Buy an NOAA Weather Alert Radio since they’re being incorporated into the overall Emergency Alert System. You should also know who your local Ham Radio operators are. See http://www.arrl.org/.


Moisture
Water is the king of firefighting and fire suppression substances. The best protection for your property lies in your ability to keep a “dome” of moisture in one form or another all over and around your home.

1. One publication under “landscaping” above lists beneficial plants that hold their moisture well. Regardless of the types of plant life in your yard, keep them well hydrated (while following watering ordinances).

2. When setting up your sprinklers, give your yard adequate spray coverage, especially over areas that might worsen the fire such as an above-ground propane tank or wooden deck attached to your house. The best sprinkler for surface areas is the professional directional type rather than the small garden variety that only sprays a weak pattern over a small area. Your garden store rep can help.

3. Put sprinklers on your roof, being sure to anchor them in place since the high winds generated in some wildfire wind storms can blow them off the roof.

4. If you have an in-ground sprinkler system, great! It will give you even water coverage over the grounds and provide a good foundation for the comprehensive water system you’ll need. To your in-ground system add separate “fire” lines that feed water to sprinklers that either spray directly against your house, or outward from your yard to cover vegetation surrounding your property. Too, have a sprinkler line permanently installed on your roof to save you the time of manually putting sprinklers up there. Also, install an additional input valve to allow water from a secondary source like a water pump drawing from your swimming pool.

5. If you have a pool, pond, well, or creek, you have a reservoir that should be put to good use so you don’t draw off the municipal water firefighters need to prevent fire from nearing your property in the first place. It’s a simple matter to keep a gas-powered generator (which self-reliant families should have) and a water pump (such as a pressure-washer), and use the two to draw water from your pool and feed it to your sprinklers. If you have a well with an electric pump, hook your generator to the pump to keep it running should local power fail. Exercise caution when setting up your generator so it doesn’t start its own fire.

6. A final consideration with sprinklers is position. Cover the outer perimeter of your yard, spray against the outer walls and roof of your house, and cover the crowns of your trees if possible. Also, consider outward-pointing sprinklers anchored to an elevated position such as an upper floor deck or porch, or your roof.


Evacuation
We strongly recommend evacuation, even if you’ve taken all the above steps and feel they might work. It’s best that you be pre-prepped and ready to leave at a moment’s notice since time is our most valuable asset. The more ready you are in advance, the more time you have.

1. All your landscaping steps should be taken care of now and maintained, especially during fire season.

2. In wildfire-prone areas, and especially during wildfire season, keep your bugout kits and vehicle ready at all times (with fuel tanks topped off). Hint: With your documents, keep the non-emergency numbers for local authorities so you can call to find out when it’s safe to return.

3. Perform last-minute landscaping ONLY if time allows, since you’ll want extra time to perform the household shutdown steps. However, don’t do anything until you’ve loaded your car with provisions and have nothing left to load but people and pets (in their carriers and/or ready to go).

4. Inside the house do the following:

- Move all flammables (such as furniture and curtains) away from windows making sure each is closed and latched. Lower and close any metallic blinds.

- Leave your fireplace damper open, and close the fireplace protective cover.

- Close all interior doors but don’t lock them.

- Turn off your heat/AC system, and cover any window air-conditioners or floor heater vents with aluminum foil and duct tape inside and out.

- Turn off all gas coming into the house whether from underground line or above-ground tank.

- Turn on inside and outside lights so your property is visible in heavy smoke. Firefighters may need to use it as a beacon.

5. To protect the valuables you don’t have room for in your evacuation vehicle, consider these:

- For waterproof valuables, put them in a bathtub, storage tub, or trashcan you’ve filled with water. (Notice we didn’t recommend your pool, since you should be using it to feed your sprinklers.)

- Large valuables such as antique furniture, etc. should be carried into the center of the house on the lowest floor (the same place you’d go in a tornado).

- Major appliances, such as your oven, fridge, freezer, dishwasher, clothes washer, and dryer, tend not to be consumed by flame or crushed by debris and thereby offer a protected storage location for other valuables. Hint: Disposable diapers are surprisingly flame resistant, and might be useful as wraps for some items stored in an appliance.

6. Lock up the house, leave a note on the door telling authorities you’ve evacuated, check with neighbors to make sure they’re on their way to safety, hop in your vehicle, and leave. Hint: If the area is getting smoky, listen to your radio for road closure information, turn your headlights on low, and set your climate controls to “re-circulate” so as not to draw in smoke from outside the vehicle.


Naturally, this is an article that could go for a few dozen more pages since it’s such an important topic and certainly one where we could offer extensive detail. For now, this will have to do. Will the above information make you fireproof and prevent any damage to your property? No. But it’s very likely to help, especially if you take these steps now. Taking these measures also helps firefighters since any time a wildfire is delayed or a home protected, you take one more item off the shoulders of first responders. Prep now, stay safe, and remember that preparedness is not only a social responsibility; it’s your only true protection.

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About the author: Paul Purcell is a security analyst and preparedness consultant with InfoQuest in Atlanta, GA, and he’s also the author of “Disaster Prep 101.” For additional preparedness-related articles visit http://www.disasterprep101.com/. Permission granted to reprint this article provided all portions remain intact. © 2007 Paul Purcell.

Tornado Preparedness: The Six Keys to Safety

The US has more tornadoes than any other area on the globe. We get them in the spring, as weather changes in the fall, when summer storms hit, and as byproducts of hurricanes. Though the Midwest is known as “tornado alley,” there’s really no place in the country that’s immune. Add to this the fact that hurricanes and severe thunderstorms can produce directional winds nearly as destructive as the vortex of a twister, and it’s easy to see that we need additional preparedness info beyond “duck and cover.”

We’re going to cover the six main areas of tornado preparedness that will help you before, during, and after a tornado or heavy storm strikes. Appropriately, we’ll use the acronym S.T.O.R.M.S.:

Shelter – Strengthen your home and know where to find expedient shelter.
Time – Increase your chances of getting the early warning.
Others – Safety and protection involves the whole family and communicating with others.
Resources – You’ll need everything from immediate supply to good insurance.
Medical – Help yourself now to save the injured later.
Sweeping Up – Tips and tricks for dealing with the aftermath.


Shelter
Severe storms with driving rain, possible hail, and projectiles hurled by strong winds offer extreme dangers from which we need to protect ourselves. The best protection would be a steel-reinforced concrete safe room located in the basement of a structurally sound building. Lacking that, let’s look at a few things you should do now:

1. Reinforce your house. There are simple things we can do to greatly strengthen our homes. Ask your local home-supply store rep about angle brackets, strapping, and techniques to install them to make your roof, walls, and connection to the foundation stronger. Also, do an internet search for “hurricane retrofit” (including quotes) to find additional instruction. One such source is from the Institute for Business and Home Safety at http://www.ibhs.org/publications/downloads/128.pdf.

2. Create a safe room or area within your home. The general rule of thumb is to pick an area near the center of your house and below ground if possible or at least on the lowest floor. Consider these points:
A. Turn your walk-in closet into a safe area. Remove the sheetrock from walls and ceiling, add extra wall studs held in place with screws, strapping, and angle brackets, and then replace the sheetrock with one or two layers of ¾” marine plywood held in place with structural adhesive and screws. Finish and paint the walls and you’ll never know it was retrofitted.
B. For some online sources of “safe-room construction” do an internet search or see:
· National Hurricane Center http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/pdf/building_safe_room.pdf.
· The University of Missouri has a detailed “Storm Shelter Pack” available online at http://extension.missouri.edu/webster/webster/security/Storm_Shelter_Packet-2007-03-05.pdf.
C. If you live in a mobile home, your best bet for safety would be a storm cellar. One simple and relatively inexpensive way to make a storm cellar is to have a septic tank company install a clean new unit in your yard, but leave about a foot above the ground. You can build a strong cover over that and use it as an outdoor deck, or as the foundation for a storage shed.
D. Some locations might reimburse you for building a safe room. Check with your tax assessor, county extension office, insurance provider, insurance commissioner, or local emergency management office.

3. Learn the “safe points.” When a tornado strikes you might be at home, but it’s more likely you’ll be at work, out running errands, or on a trip. Learn to recognize all the locations that will provide protection. Does the building you’re in have shelters? For example, in the Denver Airport, the restrooms are designated tornado shelters. Does the building have a basement? Are you on the road? How far are you from a known safe building, or from a deep ditch?

Time
In emergencies, our most important asset is time. The two best ways to gain extra time in weather emergencies are to prepare now, and to get as early a warning as possible that severe weather is heading your way. If you wait for your community’s alert sirens, you’ve waited too long.

1. Buy a Weather Alert Radio. Not only do they warn you of inclement weather, but the system is now being tied in to the regular EAS system to warn you of other emergencies.
Sign up for an alternate alert service such as the Weather Channel’s at www.weather.com/notify. Hint: When you get the warning, take action! Don’t do dumb things like videotaping the tornado.

2. Learn the indicators of severe weather. The Weather Channel and others such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at http://www.noaa.gov, have educational information that will teach you how to spot incoming severe weather. Some “symptoms” may include:
A. A large anvil-shaped thunderhead cloud or a thick, very dark, cloud cover with a pea-soup consistency.
B. Hail or, in some cases, unseasonable snow.
C. Green lightning (as lightning flashes behind clouds heavily laden with water).
D. A sudden change in humidity, wind direction or wind speed, rain volume, or rain direction.
E. A sudden change in air pressure (your ears may pop).

3. Network with others. Sometimes our friends and coworkers are our best early warning system. Develop a phone tree or at least a general agreement among friends and relatives that you’ll warn each other about dangers in the area.

Others
There are two sets of “others” you might deal with in concert with a severe storm. One is your family and the other is first responders. Communicate with your family both now – to prepare for a tornado – and later in the event a tornado watch or warning is given. You also may need to communicate with first responders if you experience injury or certain types of property damage that requires official assistance. Consider:

1. Tornado drills. Emergency reactions are worth practicing. Have your family practice getting into the safe room and into a safe position (“duck and cover”) within 30 seconds or less.

2. Protect your pets. On warning of severe weather, round up your pets, put them on leads or in carriers, and take them to your safe area. If your house is damaged in the storm your pets are more protected and easier to care for afterward. Hint: You can train your pets to head to the safe room on command. Your vet can give you some training pointers.

3. Communication and signaling may be vitally important if your home is damaged and/or someone sustains injury during a tornado. For example, though everyone might be uninjured, you may be trapped in the debris that was once your home and need someone to dig you out. In addition to your house phone and cell phone, have backup options like a hand-held two-way radio, and something that can make a loud noise such as an air-horn. Also, make sure your neighbors know you have a safe room in the house, or storm cellar in your yard. They can tell authorities where to look if no one has heard from you.

Resources
In a disaster, you’ll need goods, gear, or services to help you deal with the event and then recover afterward. Make sure you have adequately covered each of the following areas:

1. Make sure your insurance policy covers all types of natural disaster including water damage from rain or flood since many policies have strict exclusions. Also, make sure your policy will provide for the costs of temporary lodging and the full replacement value for your property and possessions.

2. Keep your isolation and evacuation supplies together in a protected spot where you can access them immediately, or where they’ll be protected if your home is damaged while you’re away.

3. Make a list of services you might need after a tornado, such as cleanup and repair services or temporary lodging. Look through your phone book to find services like tree-cutting and debris removal, structural home repairs, automotive repairs, lodging, etc. Write their contact information down and keep it with your emergency kits so you can call these services immediately after a disaster to get your name on their lists.

Medical
We’re hoping that all the advice above has kept you safe in the event of a tornado. However, we know things do happen and people get hurt. Cover the following, just in case:

1. First aid training is important for every family regardless of the threat, so learn the basics of general first aid and CPR. Next, talk with your doctor about first aid measures for specific ailments. For example, if someone in your family has Asthma and they have an attack, what are some things you can do to care for them if you can’t immediately get to their inhaler or medication?

2. First aid kits are a must and families should have several and not just one. The main kit should be kept in the home, but smaller kits should be kept in each automobile and at your workplace.

3. Copies of medical information should be kept at home. After a destructive event there’s no guarantee your family doctor will be available or that the hospital’s computers will be functional. In case of injury, medical practitioners will need to know a general medical history of the injured. Keep a list of ailments, conditions, special medical needs, and current medications of each family member (including pets). Remember, even though you’re the head of household and you know all that information, you may be injured and unable to communicate.

Sweeping Up
All destructive events have at least one thing in common; they’re going to create quite a mess. Here are a few tips to help you stay safe while cleaning up:

1. Though you might think the power is completely out, stay away from downed power lines.
Stay alert to the hissing sound of a broken gas line or the smell of gas.

2. Dress for the weather, but still dress to protect. Wear sturdy shoes or boots (and watch out for boards with nails), a hat and sunscreen, insect repellant, and heavy work gloves. The hospitals will be too full of major injuries to deal with the minor injuries you could have prevented.

3. Physical labor after a stressful event can be quite taxing. Drink plenty of fluids, eat regularly, and take periodic breaks.

4. Here is where you’d need your list of professional cleanup services. Call as soon as possible.

5. In the case of total destruction, your property itself will be a trash pile. Therefore, use your main trashcan as a receptacle for the items you want to salvage. Label it accordingly so no one throws away its contents. Hint: Take photographs or video of all the damage for insurance purposes.

6. It’s possible that your valued possessions might be strewn about the neighborhood. It’ll be easier to have things returned if your name is written or engraved on them. If you don’t want to use your name, use a unique identifier such as the first phone number you can remember from childhood. Hint: Never use your Social Security Number.

Though this article is longer than average, there is still no way we can pass along all the helpful hints and tips that will keep you safe in an emergency and help you recover afterward. Do what you can with the information presented, and continue your education on your own. The steps you take to protect yourself against tornadoes will help protect you and yours during any number of other disaster preparedness scenarios. Stay safe!


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© 2007, Paul Purcell. About the author: Paul Purcell is the lead security analyst and preparedness consultant for InfoQuest in Atlanta, GA. He’s also the author of “Disaster Prep 101 – The Ultimate Guide to Emergency Readiness.” For more information about the author and other storm and preparedness-related articles visit http://www.disasterprep101.com. Permission is granted to reprint this article provided all portions remain intact.