7:30pm – 53 degrees – scattered clouds…
A few years after we moved up here, Tony had a DNR (Department of Natural Resources) Fire Forester come out to look at our place and let us know how we would fare if a wildfire came through. The outcome of that visit was the knowledge that we would be on our own. We were told that ground fire crews would not be sent out due to the steepness and inaccessibility of the mountain ridge we live on. They may send out an aircraft to drop some fire retardant on our house but that’s about it. On the positive side, the DNR guy did say that we had a great start on the defensible space around our home and had the right to stay and protect it. Before he left, he gave us some information on how to make the defensible space around our home even better.
If you are not sure what ‘defensible space’ means…it is an area around a structure where fuels and vegetation are treated, cleared or reduced to slow the spread of wildfire towards the structure. It also reduces the chance of a structure fire moving from the building to the surrounding forest.
We are very aware of the danger from wildfires, and so far, we have only been in various levels of ‘evacuation zones’ a handful of times – several times we had our rigs all packed and ready to go, and we have actually evacuated twice when the fires have gotten a little too close for comfort.
Over the years, we have had a few wildfires that were very visible from our house. During the day we could watch as water and fire retardant was being dropped from airplanes and helicopters, and during the night we could see the glow of the raging fire, on the next ridge line over from us.
Last night we had another scare with a fire that was about 3/4 of a mile from our house. Usually when there is a fire, or visible smoke within 5-7 miles of us, our phones blow up with calls and texts. However, yesterday it had been raining hard all day, and it was foggy with low clouds, so no one saw the smoke or fire. It wasn’t until it got dark, the rain stopped, the clouds lifted a little, and then you could see the orange glow from the burning trees.
When we first saw the hillside on the ridge across from us ablaze, and we hadn’t heard anything about it, we went with assumption that no one knew about it yet and went into evacuation mode – sent a group message to our neighbors to inform them of the fire that was in close proximity, called 911, and started packing our rigs in case we needed to leave.
Within a half hour, Tony and Jack had their fire equipment pack and went to inspect the fire, we had our rigs packed and ready to go, and another neighbor had contacted DNR. That’s when we found out that the fire had started out as a planned controlled slash burn that had gotten out of control when the wind unexpectedly picked up to 30+ mph wind gusts which caused the burning slash piles to jump to the surround trees.
Thankfully they got the fire back under control, and no structures or people were hurt. But it was still a bit of a stressful night as this has been the closest fire to our house to date.
