Summer is fast approaching and due to the drought, the grass is dry and ready to burn early this year. Now I know this does not affect everyone, but I am sure that many of you live in fire prone areas. Wildfires occur in every state.
Having been involved with the fire service for so many years I get concerned when I see people ignoring the dangers around them. A while back, I saw a prepper building a cabin in the mountains and to conceal it he tied the brush back with ropes while he built the house. His idea was that he could then let the brush snap back into place and it would make his cabin harder to see. The problem is he lives in a very dangerous wildfire area and he is very likely to face a fire after TEOTWAWKI.
You need to cut the brush back around your property for several reasons. One is that when the fire service responds to a fire they use a triage system in determining whose house they will save. If you only have a limited number of fire units, you choose the locations in which you can save the most homes. If someone’s home requires too much of a commitment of equipment you write it off.
If you make your home as fire safe as possible, chances are high that they will save your home. I am not saying the firemen don’t want to save all the homes, but when you have two fire units and on one side they can save three homes and on the other it would take two units to save one home. Guess whose house they are going to save,
Several years ago they lost 69 homes about 5 miles from my home. Most of those people lived in a subdivision on city lots and thought they were safe. The fire jumped from the wildlands into the subdivision.
Here is a link to a previous article that I have written on this subject.  Wildland Fire Prevention Make your home as fire safe as possible.
Howard
