With the first week of really glorious summer weather behind us, and forecasts calling for more of the same, emergency managers throughout the Pacific Northwest are preparing for a higher-than-average fire season. As tall grasses and foliage dry out the likelihood of brush, range and timber fires increases. According to FEMA regional administrator Ken Murphy, an informed, responsible and committed public can play a major role in safeguarding property and saving lives.
“Dry conditions increase wildfire risks on both sides of the Cascades,” Murphy said.
Murphy encourages all homeowners to exercise extreme caution with grills, campfires, trash fires and other heat sources, and to embrace the commonsense commitment to pre-disaster wildfire mitigation accepted in more traditionally recognized wildfire-prone areas.
“It's not too soon for home owners to engage, by creating defensible perimeters-clearing flammable debris away from homes and structures, particularly in urban interface areas and on wooded tracts,” Murphy said.
Wildfire mitigation measures include keeping roofs and gutters free of pine needles, leaves and woodland debris while also treating wood siding, cedar shingles, exterior wood paneling and other highly combustible materials with fire retardant chemicals.
Spacing landscape plants to limit fire from spreading to surrounding vegetation or structures, storing gasoline only in approved containers and well away from occupied buildings and storing firewood and other combustibles away from structures are also recommended. Homeowners should keep firefighting tools (ladders, shovels, rakes and buckets) handy and water hoses connected, establish firebreaks around the perimeter of structures, power poles and property, cut back flammable weeds and brush and remove tree branches to a height of 15 feet and keep a non-flammable screen over the flue opening of chimneys or stovepipes.
It's also advisable to install smoke detectors on every floor and near sleeping areas, and have fire tools (shovel, rake, water bucket and a ladder that can reach the roof) handy. Make sure you plan and rehearse family evacuation plans.
For more information on how to mitigate the effects of natural disasters visit http://www.fema.gov or http://www.ready.gov.
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