CHAPTER TWO

WILDFIRES

Widespread wildfire. Credit: Pixabay.

Each year, wildfires burn more than a million acres of forest and woodland. Wildfires usually start from lightning, cigarettes, matches, burning debris, sparks from a car or train exhaust, campfires, or arson. Unfortunately, most of the time—as much as 90 percent of the time according to the US Department of Interior—humans cause wildfires. You might think that wildfires only occur in dry, hot climates or deep in a forest but they can happen just about anywhere. We live in Amarillo/Texas Panhandle and we have a “grassfire” season where huge swaths of land are constantly at risk because of fast-spreading wildfire.

Wildfires take place around the world and in most of the fifty states. These infernos are most common in the West, where heat, drought, and frequent and violent thunderstorms create ideal wildfire conditions. Some of the worst conflagrations take place in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and California. 2017 was likely the costliest for wildfires in US history because of dry conditions ripe for wildfires; it saw nearly 53,000 wildfires in the United States and over ten million acres went up in flames. Over 4.5 million US homes were identified at high or extreme risk of wildfire, with more than two million in California alone. At one time, there were an astonishing twenty-seven wildfires burning across the West. The December California wildfires were some of the worst in that state’s history, fueled by dry conditions, serious Santa Ana winds, and plenty of wooded areas. If you watched videos of the fires, then you know how surreal the images seemed, how furious and destructive they were.

AccuWeather has predicted that the economic toll of the 2017 wildfire season in California alone would reach $180 billion (no exact amount is available at the time of this writing). Imagine what goes into that estimate: homes damaged or lost (and many of them were in expensive neighborhoods); business and school closures; clogged commuter routes; respiratory illnesses from the bad air; costs to fight the fires and rehabilitation costs; lost sales, business activity, and workdays lost. (Side note: Canada had its worst wildfire season in sixty years in 2017.)

Wildfires can travel at amazing speeds, up to 14 miles per hour with the right fuel and wind conditions. Don’t think that because you aren’t adjacent to a grass field or a forest that you are safe from a wildfire. Sparks and embers can travel a mile or more.

Three conditions need to be present in order for a wildfire to burn, a relationship known as the fire triangle: fuel, oxygen, and a heat source. Fuel is any flammable material surrounding a fire, including trees, grasses, brush, even homes. The greater an area’s fuel load, the more intense the fire. Air supplies the oxygen a fire needs to burn.

Heat sources help spark the wildfire and bring fuel to temperatures hot enough to ignite. Lightning, burning campfires or cigarettes, hot winds, and even the sun can all provide sufficient heat to spark a wildfire. The weather conditions for a wildfire occur when dry weather and drought convert green vegetation into bone-dry, flammable fuel, strong winds spread fire quickly over land, and warm temperatures encourage combustion. When these factors come together, all that’s needed is a spark — in the form of lightning, arson, a downed power line, or a burning campfire or cigarette.

Traditional methods for extinguishing existing wildfires include dousing it with water and spraying fire retardants. Firefighters fight these wildfires by depriving them of one or more of the fire triangle fundamentals. The fire triangle’s three components are the three basic and necessary elements of fire: heat, fuel, and oxidization. Remove any of the three elements, and the fire is extinguished.

Firefighters frequently clear vegetation to create firebreaks (obstacles to the spread of fire) so the fire is deprived of fuel. Doing so often slows or contains the fire. Prescribed fires are another way to control wildfires. This is done by deliberately starting fires and the idea behind controlled burning is to remove undergrowth, brush, and ground litter from a forest, in which case you deprive a wildfire of fuel.

Firefighters monitor a prescribed burn. Credit: Pixabay.

Preparation

Your preparation should include 1) analysis of risk to your property and family; 2) proactive precautionary actions; and 3) family emergency management plan. Wildfires can move so quickly that the odds are that you may not be at your property when you are endangered. But let us look first at preparing your house or building.

Make sure your property adheres to all local fire codes, building codes, and weed abatement ordinances. Are there modifications you can make to your home now or in the future? Is your home built of flame-resistant materials? In high wildfire areas, more and more homes are being built or remodeled to reduce the fire risk. Your roof construction is the most important fire-resistant choice to make with your house, be it using metal, tile, or slate.

The Ready, Set, Go model (below) shows homeowners how to fireproof their homes through several techniques:

• Use 1/8-inch screens to cover vents to prevent embers from entering attics or other part of the house.

• The next time you put on a new roof, use non-combustible materials such as metal, slate, or tile.

• Make sure your home has a one-hundred-foot defensible space cleared of brush and other dry vegetation that will go up in a fire.

For the exterior, think about using brick, stone, or concrete, since those materials each are more resistant to fire than wood. You can find commercial fire retardants for your wood exterior. To begin preparing, you should build an emergency kit and make a family communications plan.

What should your emergency plan consist of?

• Emergency supplies

• Defensible plan

• Family communication and alternate route options

Pack an emergency travel bag, filled with supplies.

Emergency supplies

Don’t wait until the last minute to prepare. Start right now. Find a backpack or small carry bag to load up with all your supplies. Start with a complete first-aid kit, and possibly add burn cream and other ointments that might help someone who was injured by the fire. Make copies of your important documents, medications list, and personal identification for each family member. Assume that if you have to evacuate, you will be away from your home for an extended period of time. Each family member needs to have an accessible emergency supply kit/bag to take with them. Depending on how much lead time you have there are things that will not fit into your backpack (such as water jugs). Here’s a list of components for your emergency supplies:

Emergency Supply Kit Checklist

• A sturdy pair of shoes and a flashlight in case of a sudden evacuation at night.

• A map of your surrounding area. This sounds antiquated but you need a map for your locality. Yes, a paper map. What if the power is out or cell-phone service interrupted? Get a map and mark at least two evacuation routes by car and two by foot.

• Extra eyeglasses or contact lenses.

• Copies of important documents (birth certificates, passports, etc.).

• A three-day supply of non-perishable food (jerky, powdered soups, backpack-style freeze-dried packages, protein and breakfast bars).

• Three gallons of water per person. If three gallons per person is too much for each backpack, at least put in two bottles of water each and have a couple of jugs of water in your trunk or near the door.

• Prescriptions or special medications.

• Change of clothing: underwear, T-shirt, socks, deodorant, shampoo or body wash, washrag, and small towel.

• An extra set of car keys, credit cards, and cash or traveler’s checks.

• First-aid kit.

• Flashlight.

• Battery-powered radio and extra batteries. We suggest a hand-crank flashlight, and a hand-crank radio in case your batteries go bad.

• Sanitation supplies (hand wipes, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, etc.).

• Don’t forget pet food and water!

Items to take if time allows:

• Easily carried valuables such as family photos, flash drives, and other irreplaceable but small items. If you go by car, take your laptop but if you’re on foot, leave it.

• Chargers for your cell phones, laptops, etc.

• A small power unit for emergency charges for your phones.

• A second emergency backpack in your car in case you aren’t home when a wildfire hits.

Emergency Action Plan

Study your map and find two reasonable, safe evacuation driving routes and two walking routes in case your car fails or the streets don’t allow a car to proceed. It’s likely that if you are evacuated, the emergency management teams will already have your route laid out but you need to be prepared just in case. Drive each route at least once with your family to familiarize them with it.

What if you were somehow injured and someone else had to drive you to safety? Determine a designated emergency meeting location for your family outside the fire area. A church, a mall, or somewhere notable are all ideal meeting places. This is how you can be certain that everyone is safely evacuated. Designate a friend or family member that is not in your area as a point of contact. They will act as a contact point and be a single source of communication in case your family is separated or your local communications are shut down or overloaded.

Don’t forget your pets or livestock. If you can’t move them in time, leave them means of escape or evacuation. Show all your family members how to shut off the gas, propane, and electricity in case you’re not home when the wildfire approaches. Keep several fire extinguishers on hand in your house, train your family to use them, and check them regularly.

How can you protect your home or building while you’re gone? Begin with creating defensible space. A defensible space is one of the most effective and certainly most cost-effective means to combat potential wildfires. A defensible space is an area around your home or building where combustible fuel is removed or ameliorated so that the closer you get to your house, the less there is to burn. Having a defensible space will also provide room to work for those fighting the fire.

First, how much defensible space do you have around your property right now? Is there considerable vegetation around your house? Are there things that could catch fire easily and put your house in danger? Think in terms of preventative anti-fire zones and in those zones, think about both horizontal and vertical protection. For example purposes, you have the three concentric zones of defensible space: Zones 1, 2, and 3.

Keep combustible materials, like stacks of firewood, a safe distance from your home.

Move propane tanks to a safe location away from dwellings. Credit: Pixabay.

Zone 1 is the area within thirty feet of your home or building. The idea is to eliminate fire-prone vegetation and remove all combustible materials. What constitutes combustible materials? A big stack of firewood for starters. Do you have lumber decking? A big propane tank? Piles of leaves? Open barrel-full of trash? Even things like your patio furniture, umbrella, leftover lumber from that big project you never finished. Anything that can burn and put your house or building in danger is a combustible material. Get rid of it or modify it.

Quick notes on things you can do to improve your defensible space:

• Trim trees and shrub limbs so they do not come into contact with electrical wires. Don’t let limbs hang over your chimney.

• Be careful around power lines. Hire a professional to trim around power lines so you don’t make a mistake with your life.

• Clean your gutters, chimneys, and your roof from pine needles, leaves, and other flammable material.

• Store flammable or combustible material in approved containers.

• Prune all lower branches 8 feet from the ground.

• Check all your trees in Zone 1 for dead or dying branches and remove them.

• If firefighters have to come into your neighborhood, they will need to see the house numbers, so keep them clear and viewable from the street.

A reminder on the Bureau of Land Management’s website to remove dead trees well before wildlife season. Credit: The Bureau of Land Management.

Zone 1

Build in natural firebreaks, areas where there are no vegetation or burnable elements. Assess both the horizontal and vertical aspects of vegetation when designing your defensible space. Wildland vegetation such as grass, brush, and timber is extremely combustible. Even landscape vegetation is a hazard. Vegetation is your biggest burn threat in Zone 1.

Thin out those canopied trees near your house, meaning any trees within fifty to seventy-five feet near the house. Prune branches up to ten-feet high and eliminate all shrubs at the base of the trunks. Remove any accumulation of dead leaves. Fires can move horizontally from bush to bush and tree to tree but also vertically where the fire spreads to the tops of trees and creates what is known as a crown fire.

Zone 2

This second zone has more clumps of trees and shrubs than Zone 1 but not as much as Zone 3. Limit this zone to a few islands of vegetation but again, limit combustible plants or buildings or fuel.

Driveways and paved or gravel walkways and patios are hard break options that create firebreaks throughout your yard in Zone 2. Plant fire-resistant, low-volume vegetation. Prune dead branches. Outside buildings such as a detached garage, pump house, pergola, or a tool shed should be at least forty to sixty feet from your house, more if it holds combustible materials. If you are building it new, it’s easy to comply with recommended construction practices that increase fire resistance. Place wood piles at least thirty feet from the building and store the wood in a vegetation-free zone such as a graveled area.

Zone 3

Reduce any fuels that are farther than one hundred feet from your house by thinning and pruning vegetation horizontally and vertically. Your goals in Zone 3 are to help slow an approaching wildfire. Zone 3 should also be an aesthetic transition between the more heavily modified Zone 2 and the unmodified surroundings beyond Zone 3.

So you have taken all the more permanent precautions but you’ve found out a fire is coming your way. You have some lead time. What now? If time permits, there are a number of things you can do to keep the building as safe as possible.

• Shut off any and all fuel lines, including propane, natural gas, and oil.

• Move curtains and fabric-covered furniture away from windows and sliding doors. If the glass breaks, you do not want anything flammable near the window/door.

• Remove any combustible objects from the yard, especially gas grills and fuel cans, and discard them as far from your structure and any nearby structures as possible. You should also move any stacks of firewood as far from the building as possible.

• If time permits, trim grass and vegetation as low to the ground as possible around the building and any external propane tanks. This will help reduce the combustible material that would allow the fire to reach you or the fuel source.

A man saturates his home and vegetation with water in hopes of keeping sparks at bay. Credit: Lance Cheung, USDA.

Try to wet the area. If the building has hoses and running water, utilize that water to create a safer structure. Remember that water may not necessarily stop a fire, but it will slow it down.

• Use hoses or sprinklers to saturate the roof of the building, the walls, and the ground immediately surrounding the building.

• Fill any large containers present with water (if possible), and surround the perimeter of the building with them.

What can you do to avoid starting a wildfire?

Never leave a campfire unattended.

• Never leave a campfire unattended. Completely extinguish the fire—by dousing it with water and stirring the ashes until cold—before sleeping or leaving the campsite.

• Follow local ordinances when burning yard waste. Avoid backyard burning in windy conditions, and keep a shovel nearby, have access to water, or fire retardant nearby.

• If you spot a wildfire, call 911, your local fire department, or the park service immediately. Try to note the location and, if possible, take a quick snapshot of the fire and a screenshot of the GPS.

• Never leave a fire unattended—not a campfire, not a debris fire, and not a barrel fire. Make sure you completely extinguish the fire and the only real way to do it right is to use a lot of water.

• Be careful when camping when fueling your stoves, lanterns, and heaters. Don’t re-fuel your device if it is hot. Don’t spill flammable liquids anywhere near the devices or anything else that is combustible.

• Cigarettes, cigars, and other things you might be smoking—don’t toss them while driving. Don’t toss them in grass as you walk along the road. If you are in a national or state park, in the forest, be extra careful and don’t extinguish it with cavalier flair. Completely extinguish your smoke before discarding it.

• If you are burning trash, follow local ordinances. Be careful. Be observant. Don’t burn in windy conditions. Keep a shovel nearby and have a water source and/or fire retardant handy.

Smokey Bear reminds campers in New Jersey to use caution. Credit: Pixabay.

Survival

Mountainside home in the path of a devastating California wildfire.

Evacuation is vital to survival. If you aren’t there, you only lose your property, not your life. So get out early. But if you don’t leave, the experts say, it’s actually better to stay than to run at the last minute. Nationally, emergency declarations by government to evacuate, even if mandatory, are not always enforceable. Don’t be one of the citizens they have to convince to leave. Staying puts firefighters and first responders at risk if they have to come rescue you.

Get to know your local and national weather and emergency alerts. This is your lifeline to staying safe. The National Weather Service provides active alerts on weather across the nation. NOAA Weather Radio provides 24/7 information on watches, warnings, and advisories from the National Weather Service.

The Emergency Alert System broadcasts flash flood warnings on commercial radio and TV. Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) are emergency messages sent by authorized government alerting authorities through your mobile carrier, and they include flash flood warnings. FEMA has also launched an app that provides email alerts and text messages to the general public. Third party sources that deliver email and weather alerts are plentiful and pop up every day or so it seems.

We discovered two slightly controversial wildfire-survival shelters:

1. Emergency wildfire bags you carry with you and use only as a last resort. These emergency shelters look like aluminized sleeping bags and are designed to withstand temperatures of 500 degrees Fahrenheit (260 degrees Celsius). These fire blankets are supposed to provide a high degree of protection against radiant heat but if the fire comes in direct contact with the aluminum covering, then that shelter will not protect you at all.

2. Fire bunkers or fire pods. Experts are skeptical of these because they are not regulated, generally untested and depends on if the bunker is above or below ground. Some companies will build these into your house construction which is good because if you have to leave your house to get in one, you put yourself and others in danger.

Both of these seem promising but need more evidence of success.

If you have to evacuate

If you get the message to evacuate, don’t hesitate. Time is of the essence. Quickly shut off all gas appliances as well as the main gas valve, and electrical to your home. Prop a ladder against your house so if the firefighters need to get on your roof to put out a fire. Have hoses attached, and if you have time, fill up some buckets of water.

Grab your family, your wildfire action bags, and your pets, and get out. Know your evacuation route. You’ve planned for this after all. Don’t panic. Be purposeful and efficient. When the fire is closing in and pressure is mounting, you may forget to grab your supply backpack and where to go. Put a cap and jacket on and wear closed shoes to protect from flying fire, sparks, ashes, etc.

As you drive, if the fire is within view, keep your windows up to avoid embers and smoke and recycle air conditioning. The ashes and smoke create wind currents that move low to the ground, which means an active wildfire can transmit burning embers up to a mile ahead of the actual fire. So keep your eyes alert for any new fires or for new directions of the existing fire. Turn the radio to local stations or emergency stations to get the latest information. Drive with your headlights and hazard lights on so other evacuees can see you through any smoke. Passengers should be vigilant for pedestrians, livestock, fleeing animals, and stalled cars. There could be lots of smoke so all need to share in prevention. Be sure to follow directions of law enforcement at all times.

If you did not get the order to evacuate

The wildfire you’ve been preparing for (and dreading) is here. You are in your house. You should have already done this, but if not, go turn off the gas supply to reduce the chances of explosion.

Keep tuned to the television and to the radio for the latest emergency information. If you have a short-wave radio, you can find the channel for emergency personnel to keep up with firefighters, police, and other local emergency management.

Secure your pets inside. Turn off the air conditioning or air circulation system. Detach electrical garage doors. Back your car into the garage and leave the keys in the ignition—you don’t want to be looking for your car keys if you need to make a quick getaway.

Close your windows so you don’t get a draft and bring the fire into the house. Move upholstered furniture and any other flammables away from windows and doors. In case smoke gets in your house, turn on all your lights and put flashlights in each room. If the fire is close, take down flammable drapes and curtains. Be ready to evacuate all family members and pets if the evacuation request comes in.

Listen and watch for air quality reports and health warnings about smoke. Close all windows and doors to prevent outside smoke from getting in. If you have asthma or another lung disease, follow your healthcare provider’s advice and seek medical care if your symptoms worsen.

You still might have to evacuate of your own volition so assess each of the evacuation options to find your safest and most advantageous escape route, and decide under what circumstances you will choose to evacuate. Will you drive or walk? Most every time the answer will be drive but there are situations where walking may be quicker and/or safer. The most dangerous places to be are uphill from the flames, downwind from the fire; this essentially means stay upwind of the fire.

If you leave by car, don’t cut it too close. Many injuries and deaths occur when people wait too long to leave and cut it close, leaving a small margin for error. You might drive off the road, into a tree, into a lake, have a falling tree land on you, or hit a power line. So if you leave by car, do so in plenty of time.

A man makes the controversial choice to stay and defend his home during a wildfire. Credit: Jeff Hill.

There is a small controversial movement, that maintains that if you have prepared an effective defensible space (Zones 1, 2, and 3) and if you have proper water supply and the courage to fight fire, you should stay and defend your property. The idea is that those pesky small fires that hit a roof or a small bush or debris pile, if unattended, can grow into a much bigger fire and destroy your house. If you are there, they contend, you could easily put those fires out and keep your homestead safe. The problem is, the second leading cause of death in woodland fires is people staying outside to defend their homes. Unless you have firefighting experience, and unless you have firefighting suits and equipment, this strategy is not for you. Leave early and hope your defensible space is as efficient as you designed.

Let’s say you miss the window of escape and the wildfire is near. Stay in your house.

If you are trapped in your house or building

If you become trapped in the house or perhaps you are forced to take shelter in a building, stay inside no matter what. If the fire surrounds the building, you’re more likely to survive inside than outside. The killer in wildfires is radiant heat.

Stay calm. Getting agitated or excited will impede your leadership, constrict your decision-making abilities, and generally interfere with your ability to survive. If you have time, change your clothes from nylon (jogging suits and hosiery, especially) to cotton. Nylon has a low melting point. It’ll melt to your skin in the heat.

Close doors, windows, vents, and any other openings so you don’t get a draft that will spread the fire to the inside. Don’t lock the doors, because you may need to get out or firefighters may need to get in. Get to an interior room and stay away from exterior walls. If you are with others, stick together, don’t separate.

If you are trapped outside of your house, out in the open

If you can’t outrun it or if you’re surrounded, the safest thing to do is quickly locate a building or vehicle, or a body of water (a pool, a lake or pond, a river). Get in. Swim across the river if you can. Wet your clothing if there is water. Every second counts so keep your head about you and be efficient in action. Use a road as a barrier if possible; this will buy you time.

If you locate a building or vehicle, look for anything to cover your body—a heavy canvas tarp (not plastic or nylon) or a blanket. Again, wet it down if possible. If you find mud or wet soil, use that to cover exposed parts of your body, especially your neck, head and face. And use a shirt or other material as a filter to breathe through. Wet the cloth if you can.

Remember that wildfires can travel up to 14 miles per hour. You can’t run that fast. If it’s close, get face down in a ditch or a low-lying area. Protect your airways. This is the most important thing you can do. Even if the fire passes over you, you still have a chance of escaping if you can breathe. Once you inhale smoke and carbon monoxide, you risk passing out and dying.

If you are trapped in your car:

If you have no choice but to remain with your car during a fire front but cannot drive because there is no route, do the following in order to survive:

• Roll up all of the car windows and close all the air vents.

• Put the air conditioning on re-circulation.

• Leave the engine running even when you stop.

• Don’t worry about the gas tank. Vehicles with metal gas tank rarely explode. You are much safer staying inside the car than you would be on foot if the fire is that bad.

• Keep the radio on so that you know what direction the fire is heading and where it is focused. Use a compass and other navigation aids so that you can get out of the fire as quickly as possible.

When you stop driving, park behind a solid structure if possible. This will help to block radiant heat, which is deadly. If you cannot find a solid structure to take the heat, then stop your car in a clear area beside the road or in a similar suitable place.

So after all this research about being trapped in your car by wildfire, the most common expertise offered is this: your car will not protect you and, in fact, will boil you alive. If a wildfire is all around you, the heat and smoke unbearable, it would be hard to imagine purposefully exiting the vehicle to face the elements, naked, so to speak.

You see a vehicle that is not your vehicle, and the fire is approaching quickly. When your choices are running on foot or using a vehicle, opt for the vehicle. Yes, you are taking someone else’s car to save your life. It’s still extremely dangerous, but will give you better odds of surviving than being on foot. Look, if the fire consumes the car, you’re not going to make it. Cars are not great shelters against fires. And don’t steal a car unless it’s clear that it’s abandoned and no one else needs it to escape.

But be careful. A car will heat up and boil you alive if you are in it. Think of how hot metal gets. You must avoid being caught in a vehicle because a car offers no protection from radiant heat. Think of how fast a covered pot of water reaches a boil, and you have a good idea of why cars are not a safe place to be during a fire.

Once the fire has passed, it is time to get out of the car.

• Immediately attend to children and anyone experiencing stress or shock.

• If you have a cell phone and service, call for help immediately.

• If the car is still operational then drive away from the fire to safety. If the car is no longer operational walk away from the fire to seek help.

How to Survive a Wildfire on Foot

The most dangerous places to be in relation to a wildfire are uphill from the flames and downwind from the fire. Always try to stay upwind of the fire. So if the wind is blowing past you and toward the fire, run into the wind. If the wind is behind the fire and blowing toward you, run perpendicular to the fire so that you are escaping both the flames and the course those flames will blow towards. Head for non-flammable terrain (parking lot, stadium, wide road, etc.) If at all possible, head for the nearest, biggest area that is unlikely to burn. While the fire might be wide, it still needs combustible material like trees, brush, and tall grass to burn.

• Look for areas free of trees and brush. Always try to put a body of water between you and the fire.

• Places which have already burned are sometimes the safest places to go. That said, make sure that the area is completely extinguished before proceeding.

• Avoid high-burn places such as fields of dry grass, forests, canyons, barren plowed fields, riverbeds, ponds, and rocky areas. And as the fire advances, even if you’ve temporarily escaped, avoid places that could leave you trapped once the fire advances.

• Avoid places where you could get trapped by fire—ridges, canyons, ski slopes, and other elevated spots with no escape.

• If you are hiking in backcountry, look for a depression with sparse fuel. Lie face down in the depression. Stay down until after the fire passes.

• Choose downhill routes if possible. Fire moves faster uphill due to updrafts.

• A drainage pipe or an underground hole could be the place that saves your life. Lay low and curled up. Cover any exposed skin. This will also help reduce smoke inhalation.

• Seek emergency help as soon as possible. You might have thermal burns that need to be treated.

You need to breathe, so get low. In order to breathe the best air, stay as low to the ground as possible. Cover your nose and mouth with a wet cloth of some sort, and if not wet, a shirt or bandana or cloth, and hold it there until you get to a safer area.

If all else fails and you have to stand your ground, cover your body with anything that will protect you from the fire. Wet clothing, a wet blanket, anything except nylon or rubber. If you don’t have anything else, cover yourself with dirt or mud. Get down and stay down. As hard as it sounds, stay covered until the fire passes. Failure to do this could get you killed.

If you are driving and you aren’t yet trapped: If the vehicle can run and you’re capable of driving it, then do so. Drive safely and slowly so you can clearly your surroundings and so that anyone else on the road can see you.

• Drive slowly.

• Turn your headlights on.

• Keep an eye peeled for other vehicles and pedestrians. Stop to let any endangered pedestrians you see ride along with you.

• Don’t drive through heavy smoke.

• Don’t stop until you are well clear of any danger but if you have to stop, do so in an inflammable area, such as a parking lot.

Aftermath

Exercise caution even after the fire. Don’t return home until you’re told it’s safe to do so. When you get home, use caution. Is there any standing water outside? Are there any hotspots in your yard, any embers or smoldering debris on your roof? Stumps can burn for days or longer. The wind could come along and make the hotspot flare up.

Do you smell gas? Do you see any fallen power lines? If you judge it safe to go in, check the house before you just go turn on the gas, electrical, and water. If you see damage to any of those, consult a professional immediately. Check your attic for any hidden fire problems—embers or sparks—that could have burrowed through your roof. Continue to check regularly throughout your return for several days.

The charred remains of a California home. Credit: Jeff Hill.

Coming home after a wildfire can be difficult. It may have been weeks since you’ve been allowed back. Your home may be burned up beyond recognition. You may have neighbors who have lost their properties or lives. Everything you have worked for may be gone. Check with officials before attempting to return to your home. You don’t want to risk going back in when there is still danger.

• Check grounds for hot spots, smoldering stumps, and vegetation that might still be vulnerable to sparks.

• Check your roof and all exterior areas for sparks or embers. Remove any loose limbs, leaves, or anything else that could catch fire from an errant ember.

• Check the attic and all through your house for any hidden burning sparks or embers.

• Open cabinets and smell vents. Be a detective. You don’t want to lay your head on your pillow tonight if your house is a possible fire hazard.

• Turn off all appliances and make sure the meter is not damaged before turning on the main circuit breaker.

Check for embers and hot spots before returning to your home.

• If you sense fire danger, contact 911. Your neighborhood will thank you.

• Flash floods are a deadly hazard after a wildfire, because rain falling in a burned area upstream of your location has no vegetation or grass to stop it from heading downhill. Stay away from ditches, streams, storm channels, and arroyos.

• Keep a battery-powered radio to listen for emergency updates, reports of weather and flash flooding, and news reports.

• You already have an evacuation plan in place, so if something goes wrong and winds cause fires again, make sure all family members know it in case you need to leave your home for any reason.

• Do not drink or use water from your faucet (or even your fridge water dispenser) until emergency officials give the thumbs up. Your water supply systems can be damaged during wildfires or flooding.

• As you move around your yard and drive in your burned neighborhood, be aware of and use extreme caution around trees, power poles, and other tall objects that may have lost stability during the fire.

• Many burned structures and surfaces will be unstable. If the winds are up, be especially wary of trees, especially clearly-burned trees.

• If you try and you have no power, make sure the main breaker is on. If the breakers are on and power is still not turned on, contact the utility company.

• If you have a propane tank or system, contact a propane supplier, turn off valves on the system, and leave valves closed until the supplier inspects your system. If you have a heating oil tank system, contact a heating oil supplier for an inspection of your system before using.

• Before you start cleanup, document all damage with photographs. Contact your insurance agent and find out what to do next.

• For the next week, have all family members maintain a fire watch—and by that we mean smell and look for smoke or sparks throughout the house and on the rooftop, in gutters, in the yard, in the attic.