Mounted search and rescue

["Rick Tracy" <rick@westcoastframe.com>]

Irv,

 

I couldn’t agree with you more on the evacuation plan and defensible space.  This wildfire season isn’t by any means normal or isolated to California.  As a person who is part of the fire industry it is clearly going to be recorded as one of or the worst seasons on record.   One could argue for days about how to let nature take it course, timber management etc, but the fact is that with drought conditions year after year it doesn’t take much to set off a tinderbox and have the results we are seeing today. 

 

I agree also that if you were to put in a large water supply on your property you could increase your chances to save your house and barn with the addition of a foam system and prep the area around the buildings as well as the buildings to possibly save them. Most foam agents for Class A type fuels (wood) only require .3% of concentrate.  So you’re effectively making 3000 gallons of water into 100,000 gallons.  Some wildfires move so fast that you wouldn’t have a time to prepare.  An automatic watering system may also help, just turn it on before you leave. 

 

I read an interesting article not long ago about why one home was untouched but the neighboring homes were destroyed, even though they were built the same way.  As the heat approaches the home, the windows will break allowing the embers to enter the home and it will burn from the inside out. It just happened that the home without damage had all of the windows in place.  I also have seen a new product that is metal shades that you would close before leaving to keep the embers out. I haven’t seen real world results but this may just add another way of protection. Nothing is 100% effective but every little bit can help. 

 

Keeping water trucks close by are an ok idea, but any fire should be left to the professionals.  There is more to fire fighting fire than spraying water on it.  If you look back at history with wildfires, most of the people who lost their lives was due to the intense heat burning their lungs, not the actual fire.  The reason you don’t see aircraft (ARFF) unit on fires is because the units are just too wide to access most driveways or secondary roads.  Yes they carry 3000 gallons of water but will empty the tank is 3 minutes.  They are made to flood an area around an aircraft or puncture the fuselage of the aircraft quickly.   

 

Evacuation plans need to be practiced and followed especially when you have horses, this adds another element of complications that most people don’t have to worry about.  It is always a good idea to have a predetermined meeting place, holding pens etc ready when the emergency happens.  This isn’t just related to fire, it could be for a number of natural disasters.  To attempt to stay put may cost you more then your lives but the other who have to rescue those individuals.   

 

I hope that the people in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas will make it without harm to them or their animals. 

 

Rick Tracy

Fire Apparatus Division

3203-D West Capitol Avenue

West Sacramento, CA 95691

916-371-6100 Office

916-371-4072 Fax

916-825-7422 Cell

rick@westcoastframe.com

 

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From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of IRVIN LICHTENSTEIN
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2011 9:19 PM
To: 'Mounted search and rescue'
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Evacuation plans

 

The evacuation best plan is the plan you don’t have to use.  It is difficult to prevent random events, like lightning or blow downs, but you can minimize their consequences on your property.  Keeping the barriers clear of fuel, putting in larger water tanks, using fire resistive materials for buildings reduce consequences.  It is not just defending your space but keeping your space from being threatened in the first place.

 

Given that what was a 100 year event is now happening every 10 years or less (floods, fires, droughts) you should start thinking in terms of a 500 year storm.  Many housing developments with limited water sources are installing large underground tanks and filling them slowly during off peak hours from their system and providing fire

department connections for pump out and refill.  Having 30,000 gallons of water in a secure location can help.  Also, having a low flow wet down system to cover your roof will save your barn and help with smoke.  Steel will melt, and it reradiates the heat.  Concrete will spall and holds the heat.  Adding a relatively low concentration agent (1%) will stretch the water supply considerably and make it wetter.  Your community should look into obtaining large water tank trucks or surplus airport crash trucks as they are designed to operate off road and to carry as much as 3000 gallons of water, operated by one person.

 

As to evacuating—you have to leave early and stay away until it is really over.  You leave when the fire starts, not when the deputy says, “get out NOW!!!”  My horse never wanted to load when we went on a camping trip or a day ride.  Maybe it was because he was leaving home and was expecting to work 8 – 12 hours that day.  He was in the stock trailer when it rolled over one day.  Despite being in the middle of an 8 lane interstate on Memorial Day weekend at the baseball stadium exit he calmly walked down the roadway to an off ramp and waited for another trailer.  The he loaded into a much smaller, side by side ramp load that belonged to the mounted police unit and let strangers take him to a strange barn for the night.  When it was time to go home he loaded without a flinch into a third trailer.  He doesn’t mind loading, he hates not being able to unload until you let him.  And he doesn’t like the water in strange places either.

 

Irv Lichtenstein   

 

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From: msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:msar-riders-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Sabine
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2011 11:36 PM
To: Mounted search and rescue
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Evacuation plans