How to prepare for wildfires
What to do before, during, and after a wildfire. What to do when it is too late to evacuate?
One of my friends is a firefighter and is part of the fire bush brigade that is teaching on how to fight wildfires. Below you will find some tips and tricks on how to prepare against this catastrophe.
Short introduction
A “wildfire” can be defined as any type of uncontrolled fire that is spreading across wildland, including pastureland, forests, grasslands and peatlands.
The destruction caused by wildfires in the United States has significantly increased in the last two decades. An average of 72,400 wildfires cleared an average of 7 million acres of U.S. land each year since 2000, double the number of acres scorched by wildfires in the 1990s. In 2015, the largest wildfire season recorded in U.S. history burned more than 10 million acres of land. Globally, wildfires have many impacts on humans, wildlife and the economy. Wildfires are a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions and are also responsible for 5–8% of the 3.3 million annual premature deaths from poor air quality, research suggests. Across the world, it is estimated that just 4% of fires start naturally. Great article about everything wildfires
Firestorms are real. Under very dry and windy conditions, profuse spotting from certain eucalypt forests will result in the ignition of a broad area ahead of the fire. This creates a firestorm environment with highly chaotic and turbulent winds further driving fire in all directions. The mass ignition can result in the formation of large fire-whirls, or fire tornadoes. Although localized, the very strong wind speeds generated (estimated to be up to 250 km/h given the damage they cause) are extremely destructive. If enough fuel is being consumed within the fire area, the heat generated creates an extremely strong updraught of air that can result in a pyrocumulunimbus cloud, or flammagenitus. In extreme cases this thunderstorm-type cloud can produce lightning strikes, which have been known to start new fires.
What to do before:
The most obvious — terrain: don’t live in a fire-prone area where it is very hot, very windy, and dry as *uck for that sort of fire to start. If you are going to buy a house in a wildfire area don’t buy it on a slope! Fires burn much faster uphill than down. This is because the radiation and convection a fire creates preheat the unburned fuel ahead of the flame front, and this is done more effectively upslope than down. A 10-degree increase in slope usually results in a doubling of the speed of the fire. Fire will spread up a 20-degree slope four times as fast as it will along flat ground. You can’t outrun it — it can move up to 400km (250miles) per hour uphill.
Insurance. Make a video around your house of every cabinet and drawer and all of your items. Talk over and name the brands as you walk around.
Prepare your vehicle and have a plan B location. Never have your car with less than ½ full tank ever. Be sure to escape early by listening to radio and cellphone warnings. People who are staying behind can’t escape because felt trees can block exit routes in minutes.
Prepare your house for wildfires: Don’t build your house out of wood or vinyl but bricks and concrete. Keep brush, weeds, and other potential fuels trimmed back on your property, especially around your home. Put away grills, propane tanks, or other flammable materials that may be in your yard. Dig a 4 or 5-foot wide dirt ditch around the house (remember that wildfires can jump across ditches!). Close all doors and windows and fill sinks, tubs, and other containers with water to discourage fire. Remember to have these tanks inside your home, external water tanks will melt real fast and you’ll have no water. Shut off natural gas, propane, or fuel oil supplies. Install sprinkles around and on the roof of your house. Remove all tree branches at least 6 feet from the ground. Allow extra vertical space between shrubs and trees (space should be 3x the size of the shrub). Lack of vertical space can allow a fire to move from the ground to the brush to the treetops like a ladder. Buy a couple of extinguishers. Invest in fire doors. Place a ladder against your house. This helps firefighters gain quick access to your roof. Turn on your patio lights so that firefighters have a better chance of seeing your home past the smoke.
Prepare a Bug-out bag. A bug out bag is designed to get you out of an emergency situation, get you to your bug out location, and typically allow you to survive for up to 3 days (72 hours). Bug Out Bags are designed specifically with temporary survival in mind, whereas hunkering down can see you taking to your basement where protection is increased, with the benefits of knowing exactly where you are and with all of your home resources but a floor away. Keep your bug-out bag in your vehicle when you know that bushfires are in the area.
- Facemask and goggles! I wrote a long article about preps for Covid19 and one of the chapters was about facemasks. A disposable, half mask or full face respirator will do the trick. Don’t use any cloth-based mask nor surgical mask. The facemask must filter the ashes and particles in the air. If you are buying a disposable — any N95+ mask. Halfmasks and full masks are using cartridges — the best is the 7093 filter P100. The most important is to filter the most airborne particles as possible.
- The bag. A hiking backpack that doesn’t screen “military!” and is water-resistant. Something like this
- Cash
- Outdoor clothes. and high vis clothing. During a wildfire, it gets very dark from all the ashes. Clothes made out of leather and wool or cotton. Not synthetic stuff.
- Your most important documents (and a USB and cloud backup with all of them scanned and archived)
- Hiking shoes and good socks!
- Ultralight tent for when the bugout location is overrun
- Sleeping pad and sleeping bag
- MRE for 3 days
- A portable stove with camping cookware
- Headlamp and whistles
- Duct tape, saw, a small axe,
- Ferro rods, BIC lighters, storm matches
- Toilet paper
- Garbage bag
- toiletries, Wet wipes,
- earplugs
- Sewing kit
- First aid kit
- Binoculars
- electronics (FM radio, cellphone, Ham radio), Chargers, cables.
- Flashlight
- Water + filtration + 30 Water Treatment Tabs
- Knife
If you have some money you can either: build a fireproof concrete bunker but you will need to measure if you have enough oxygen for the wildfire to pass, a good filtration system or you will need to buy some oxygen tanks for you to use during this catastrophe.
Or: buy a trailer/small RV that you can pre-load with your pandemic supplies. You can take months of food supplies and drinking water with you.
What to do when it is too late and you didn’t prepare:
If actually caught and unable to escape you have to dig in and cover with DRY WOOLEN BLANKETS! Do not use any wet blankets or clothes — you’ll boil alive. Do not use any synthetic blankets as they will catch fire or melt.
Fill your bathtub before the wildfire hits
Prepare a low-sheltered concrete corner, some sheets of tin, some DRY wool blankets, and one moist towel to protect from radiant heat. Stay low to the ground for the best air.
Wear some wool or cotton long sleeves, jeans, leather gloves, and leather boots. You can handle burning wood with these gloves. Remember to not use any synthetic material.
If you are caught outside, try to find a body of water to swim. Large bodies of water are good to venture out into if necessary, but keep in mind you need a decent level of physical fitness to maintain treading water whilst also inhaling smoke at the same time. If you are caught outside and there is a pool try not to swim on the surface as the radiant heat can burn you. Try to dive and breathe via a tube with a soaked material. The water won’t boil so don’t be afraid to jump in.
If you can’t, find a depression with the least vegetation and lie low, covering yourself with blankets, clothes, or soil if possible. Try to breathe through a wet cloth to avoid suffocation, burned lungs, or dust. Sometimes the only safe area to run to is often INTO an area already burnt.
What to do after?
- Do not return until instructed to do so.
- Listen to authorities before drinking water from the area.
- Avoid items that are hot, smoky, or charred.
- Text friends and family, but don’t call. Lines may be busy.
- Wear a dust mask and document property damage.
- Beware of the risk of flooding, since trees and protective vegetation might have been removed, exposing loose soil.
- If your house is still standing and in good condition use air filters and purifiers. You can make one yourself for 25 usd https://youtu.be/kH5APw_SLUU or buy one that is rated MERV 13 or MPR 1500–1900 or FPR 10.
