Nor Cal fires
 

Well, 3 weeks ago we had a huge dry lightning storm. Ignited a good swath of Norcal, hundreds of fires. We got the call wednesday night for a mandatory evac, was up till 1 am packing up the houses and our family business(landscaping). We haven't left yet, the fires, I believe have switched directions, away from us, but still less than 2 miles through thick brush. The 30 mph winds today didn't help. any one else dealing with this? oh yah, aside from being smokey as hell out, it has been 115. Perfect weather to build yards in. fun fun, and summer just started.

Best of luck to you bro. Been watching it on the news. Anything I can do, lemme know.

Prayers from the land of the biscuit burn.

Yeah man i know what you're talking about. I have some friends in the mountains that had some very close calls. I was fishin on Shasta lake 2 weeks ago, me and my buddy were up the Pit river arm a bit on his boat and we could see some small brush fires no more than 300 ft. from us. I can't imagine the feeling of owning property close to those fires. Goodluck.
Send me a pm if you need a hand.

On June 20th we were at Ruth Lake (Mad River) watching the lightning hit. Got smokey as heck the next day so we headed back to Red Bluff (on way back to Vacaville) a day earlier than planned. It was really bad smoke and they closed hwy 36 that evening so we lucked out. Hope it turns out Ok for you.

I know what your going through. I got evacuated in 03 for the Cedar fire and then again in 07 for the Witch Fire. Just make sure you have everything in your vehicles and ready to go that you want to take with you. I'm not sure how fast moving the fires are up there. Down here they only gave you a few minutes to pack up and get out. The fires sounded like a freight train coming down the road. Be safe and I hope the fire doesn't get any closer to where you are.

Be safe! Will keep you in our prayers. We evacuated three times in the past two years. Thankfully this year (fingers crossed, eyes heavenward) we haven't had to. We do know exactly what you are going through. We have livestock to haul to safety as well which complicates things. I guess the good thing is that now we the routine down- the livestock get hauled out as soon as there is a hint of evacuation. Course most pictures, picture albums, and important papers live in rubbermaid tubs now for easy removal. We're not confident enough to unpack them..... We ARE looking into a foam system though!!

Do you know the things you can do to help protect your home? Take your curtains/blinds down, pull everything away from the windows, roll up any rugs, move upholstered furniture as far from the windows as possible. If you have time hammer some wood across the attic vents to keep sparks from getting in. We read all the research they did a few years ago after all of So Cal burned and those were the things they came up with. Seems most homes burned from the INSIDE out. Weird. We even boxed our eaves as that is also a spark entrance (but not something you can do quickly!)

Good luck!! check in when you can so we know you and yours are safe!

(ps- forgot to say if you are on a private well you can set outdoor sprinklers going on your roof and outbuildings. If you aren't on a well don't do this as it reduces water pressure for the firefighters)

Mtn.Dodge,what whose foam systems were you looking at?I live not far enough from the "the Oakland Hills Fire" area, andI was thinking of rainbirds on the roof. A slime or self contained foam system seems to be a better option.

only drapes made of light weight material should be removed, while heavy drapes and venetian blinds should be closed. your windows are the weakest component of your home and in a wildfire, glass can fracture within 5 minutes of direct heat. once your windows have been compromised, there is nothing to keep embers from igniting the interior of your home, so heavy drapes and blinds will be your only chance of keeping ignited material from coming inside. closing heavy drapes and blinds will also help keep radiant heat from possibly igniting things like interior window casings made of wood. be careful and stay safe.......

Good luck guys, I know the pain, I grew up in the Chico-Paradice areas and have a couple buddys who work with DOF in Cal. I haven't had a chance to talk to them much due to the fires. One just sent me over heads of the area last week to show me where the fires where. Keep safe man.

Yeah, sorry, thanks for clarifying for me. We are actually going to make fire shutters for our windows that we can pop in when threatened. We have very few windows on three sides of the house- and they are in two foot thick walls. But the front of the house is almost all glass- and needs those shutters badly!

fire shutters and coverings for vents are both very good ideas. things like that and mitigating your property, creating fire breaks, and a defensible space, will go a long way to keeping your house safe. foam sprayed by the homeowner prior to evacuation will usually dry out long before the fire actually gets to the house, especially in the conditions you will likely have (very hot and very dry). you might want to talk to your local fire dept. about the effectiveness of some of the more high tech (and expensive) chemicals sold for home protection, and if they think it's worth while to look into them.

Hi, folks in our area have been looking at Thermo Gel. It's basically the same the firefighters are using to gel houses when they can. Here's some discussion on it from a distributor:

"The shelf life of the gel was originally three years, although I have heard that this might have been extended a while back so I'm going to double check with the company. You want to give the containers a good shake every six months to prevent settling. When you spray it on your house, car, propane tank or whatever is at risk, it remains effective for about 2-6 hours depending on weather. The hotter and windier it is, the shorter it will remain effective. The good thing is that when most of the water has evaporated out of the gel, you can use a mist of water and reactivate it - this can generally only be done once."

Local FF'ers suggest you leave an empty gel container in place by the street so that if you are evacuated they will know that your house would be defensible - they can wet the gel and move to the next house. They've also discussed that if they have a choice between saving only one home they will try to save the one that has been gelled because the owners were proactive and the chance to save it is higher!

The basic kit is about $300, covers 4000sq ft (1700sq ft house) and has a sign in it letting FFers know what time and date it was applied.

The gel comes off with water.

It seems to me it might not be a bad idea to order two basic kits- one to apply ourself before leaving and one to leave for firefighters to apply when they get here. (which they've said they'll do- just leave it hooked to the hose) $600 is small insurance to keep our house safe! It can also be applied without harm to surrounding trees, shrubs, bushes. They are currently overnighting it to folks in fire areas.