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the scoop about the potential for a forest fire - burning as we speak - and folks are concerned its about to dry out ..... no wonder all the squirrels are invading punaweb - couldn't resist - sorry
fire clearance never a bad idea no matter where one lives 100' 50'? keeps the bugs out as well Im thinkin
http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/loc...e-concerns
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quote:
fire clearance never a bad idea no matter where one lives 100' 50'?
I'm surprised County doesn't have an ordinance for this, along with a crack team of inspectors issuing citations.
(Seriously, other places codify the fire clearance for homes "in the country"...)
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I read 30 feet minimum ... and a good reminder about keeping plants and trees trimmed to at least six feet off the ground ... clearance between branches and roof etc... good time to take stock
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we really need a like button - thx for the link
manana
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Even if you cleared a buffer zone equal to twice the length of the tallest trees around your property/home you still need to be concerned about wind-driven embers - which can travel for miles before landing and still pose an ignition threat.
Your best bet beyond Bullwinkle's advice is a large water storage capacity with easy access for fire fighters. A friend of mine built a 32 foot diameter, 6 foot deep, pool by choosing a low spot in his yard which held water for quite awhile after the rain stopped.
The pool is made of stone excavated from the site and concrete, sealed with Tamms
Tamoseal.
"Life is labor, and all that is good in life comes from that labor..."
"Life is labor, and all that is good in life comes from that labor..."
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Delta 9er is on track with his comment. In California, ( yeah right here it comes,) they insist on a 100 ft "defensible space", minimum 3200 gallon water reservoir or enough water to give 20 minutes water delivery to dwelling for suppression. In addition, they want 1 hour construction on house. Biggest challenge is heat transfer in a large forest fire, so thin the area beyond your defensible space.Thermal imaging showed temps up to 2000 degrees at the center of hotspots during the Rim, or Yosemite fire last summer. 3 years of drought, dead pines from drought and recent air pollution added to the fuel. Back to heat. Water on the roof is useless. Heat transfer from a fire this hot will permeate thru the windows and heat up the interior furnishings to a point of ignition and that's all it takes. I don,t mean to scare, just to inform...
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We do not have dense pine forest kind of fires. Roofs help with the flying embers as long as you don't have combustible stuff next to your house. The more open space around your house the better,and bare gound or gravel right next to the house. A driveway that a fire truck can get into is a big plus ( if you have your power line crossing your driveway look how high it is then look how high a firehouse door is ).
Also there is a person from Firewise that lives in in Puna , they do community programs
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SEEB... I realize the difference in vegetation, the dead pines are not as dense as one would think. The addition of them made it particularily bad, as it added to the dense floor vegetation, that had grown out of hand due to budget cuts (clearing crews). In any Wildland interface area ( Jungle/forest to homes) the threat of a fire is always there, just like lava. The best thing you can do is to be vigilant about removing dead growth, give yourself a defense space, and have water on hand to "encourage" it to go the other way. Note to consider, the more garden hoses you use, the less water in the pipe to keep the big trucks filled, and if someone abandons a hose line, water wasted as it continues to flow. The biggest political end ( as the story goes)of the fires last summer is that they use inmates to battle the fire, and if the crew chief sees a "grow" he has to keep them away from that area a a possible breach is now available there. The Swedes fire had so many "grow" plots they made a huge containment area , assessed which homes had a defensible area, and protected those, and let the rest burn out. I guess it was cheaper to them instead of using CAMP.
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