Never a dull moment

[DLThomas]

What do you get with 4 - 5% humidity, 30 - 35 mph winds, and 98 degrees Farenheit?

A 700+ acre wildfire in less than a blink of an eye...

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/photographs/2940/" target="_blank

Dave (from the tinder box) Thomas

[bloke]

All we need around here are

- dry conditions for a couple of months...particularly in the winter
- some idiot with an exhaust system dragging on the highway and sparking

to have a c. 4-mile-long x c. 1/4-mile-deep (if we're lucky, that's all it is) grass/forest fire around here...

...and (yep) my house is at the top of a hill which goes up from the highway. However, my house is sitting up on a tall concrete-and-stone foundation with the part that is sitting nearly on the ground surrounded by concrete.


bloke "It's scary. Not expecting anyone's assistance or help in such an emergency, I have - stored out in the barn...right inside the door - a Honda portable water pump and 3" diameter fire hose ready to go (plenty of hose to make it from the pond to the house and outbuildings)"

[TubaTinker]

.... bloke "It's scary. Not expecting anyone's assistance or help in such an emergency, I have - stored out in the barn...right inside the door - a Honda portable water pump and 3" diameter fire hose ready to go (plenty of hose to make it from the pond to the house and outbuildings)"

Yeah... I'll bet those 'Lincoln Logs' would burn real good!

I damned near caught my house on fire a couple of decades ago when it was this hot and dry. A plain old grass fire ignited some tall weeds next to the house that I had failed to cut down. Stupid combined with stupid can get bad very quickly!

[bloke]

.... bloke "It's scary. Not expecting anyone's assistance or help in such an emergency, I have - stored out in the barn...right inside the door - a Honda portable water pump and 3" diameter fire hose ready to go (plenty of hose to make it from the pond to the house and outbuildings)"

Yeah... I'll bet those 'Lincoln Logs' would burn real good!

I damned near caught my house on fire a couple of decades ago when it was this hot and dry. A plain old grass fire ignited some tall weeds next to the house that I had failed to cut down. Stupid combined with stupid can get bad very quickly!

Log houses, actually (and insurance companies need to begin to understand this), are considerably more difficult to ignite than most. As traditional construction houses' walls consist of a continuous repeated pattern of c. 14" wide "chimneys" and - often - siding (small gauge material) which would act as "kindling", it's fairly difficult to catch a solid array of horizontal 8" diameter solid logs on fire from little more than a quickly-passing grass fire...

...but I'm ready anyway.

bloke "who has no trees of any size anywhere close to the house"

[TubaTinker]

..... it's fairly difficult to catch a solid array of horizontal 8" diameter solid logs on fire from little more than a quickly-passing grass fire...

...but I'm ready anyway.

bloke "who has no trees of any size anywhere close to the house"

Yes.... it would take one hell of a grass fire or storm to do any damage to your place.

[goodgigs]

Hay Bloke,
I know you don't like to here stories about the "Gobment" telling people how to live, but
Where I live it is illegal to build a house in the forest without full interior / exterior fire sprinklers !
Best part is: if the power lines burn down before the flames get to your house, you get no pressure.
"But it's pretty out here in California."

[bloke]

Hay Bloke,
I know you don't like to here stories about the "Gobment" telling people how to live, but
Where I live it is illegal to build a house in the forest without full interior / exterior fire sprinklers !
Best part is: if the power lines burn down before the flames get to your house, you get no pressure.
"But it's pretty out here in California."

Absolutely Brian...which is why its nice to have a pond and a gas-operated pump...as well as enough land around one's home to only be threatened by grass fires (rather than forest fires). In fact, the city of Memphis (one county to the west of me) when viewed from above resembles a forest, more than anything. If there were ever a really bad fire over there (multiple city blocks, etc.) accompanied by a power outage, they would be in serious trouble.

The prevailing winds would bring such a fire in my direction, but one good thing is that a hundreds-of-feet-wide north-south freeway (as well as some wetlands around rivers) divide our counties - as well as our counties' tree clusters.

As this satellite photo shows, Memphis (and its county, Shelby) are VERY green (MANY trees) for an urban area (with people in more newly-developed areas, such as "Collierville" in the process of PLANTING AND CULTIVATING trees in their yards)...but the man-made fire barrier protecting my county to the east (freeway along the eastern edge of Memphis' county) as well as the wetlands natural fire barriers are very visible in the satellite photo.

Just in case the TubeNet frame cuts off the right side of the picture, here's the website of the picture:
http://i45.tinypic.com/2en5ndi.png


Back when I lived and worked in Memphis, I lived and worked in the VERY-VERY green area (MANY-MANY large trees) that you see SOUTH of the neighborhood labeled "Berclair". Leaf-removal each year (at both my business and home properties) was a nightmare. I would collect dozens-and-dozens of appliance boxes in which I tight-packed leaves for pick-up by those City trucks (with the big "jaws"). I was also on (both) roofs multiple times each year with a backpack leaf blower clearing off leaves, twigs, and other tree-related debris.

bloke "didn't mean to hijack the thread, but anyone else is may surely contribute their specific fire and mega-fire concerns."

[alfredr]

Hmmmm.....Generally trees are seen as being good for the environment in general. I'll go out and hug a few.

[bloke]

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_20945863/several-fires-explode-across-front-range

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/06/26/wildfire-puts-city-of-boulder-put-on-pre-evacuation-orders

[hrender]

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_20945863/several-fires-explode-across-front-range

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/06/26/wildfire-puts-city-of-boulder-put-on-pre-evacuation-orders

Yeah, I'm living that dream right now. Thankfully we're 3-4 miles from the evac zone, the fire lines seems to be receding, and there are rain clouds overhead as I write this.

[Mark]

I have - stored out in the barn...right inside the door - a Honda portable water pump and 3" diameter fire hose ready to go (plenty of hose to make it from the pond to the house and outbuildings)"

Will your government allow you to use your water in your pond to save your house? Wouldn't you be destroying a protected wetland?

[bloke]

I have - stored out in the barn...right inside the door - a Honda portable water pump and 3" diameter fire hose ready to go (plenty of hose to make it from the pond to the house and outbuildings)"

Will your government allow you to use your water in your pond to save your house? Wouldn't you be destroying a protected wetland?

Whoops. I guess I'd better check into that sometime.