Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Boulder wildfire.

I took this on my way home this morning, this is from ~10 miles away so it's a big fire. The grade is steep there so the fire is going to climb quickly. It would be suicide for a ground crew to pin themselves up against the Flatirons to save this forest so I imagine all the great trails in this area are going to suck for a few years. Also, due to the steep pitch of the terrain, it's now very vulnerable to erosion (mudslides). Just my 2 cents from a glance.



I went to a wildland fire class a few weeks ago and spent 2 hours learning about how wild fires spread and how to save your house if a fire is coming. Fire mitigation. I also learned that the mountain fire district will drive through a neighborhood and rate each house based on it's vulnerability (IE: owner laziness or lack of caring in regards to fire proofing their land like clearing trees from near the house or cutting the tall grasses. A wood shingle roof means you're f**ked). They then place either a red, yellow or green distinction on your house. If a fire hits and your house is "red" then they drive right on by. If it's green then they will make an attempt to save your house if it's in danger. Ruthless but necessary.

7 comments:

Josh Rubin said...

With regards to the signs, do they at least let the Red homeowners know what to do to help the situation?

Lucho said...

Nope. They do the assessment just ~48 hours before the fire is due to hit your neighborhood. I asked that same question! I said that if a homeowner knew he was rated "red" in 2 days he could mow, cut trees etc. The fire chief said they don't have the man power or time in the face of a fire to reassess a neighborhood or individual house, which does make sense. Basically you have to be ready year around, which also makes sense. It's your house and your land and it's your responsibility to protect it, the fire fighters only can work with what you provide. They can't spend 2 hours protecting your house because you didn't cut your grass or trees or rake pine needles and neglect 5 others. Like I said, ruthless! But I guess fire is too.

Brett said...

Damned death panels. :)

Blake said...

The No. 1 Rule of Joghard couldn't be summed up any better than that header photo.

Anonymous said...

Tim,

I'd look into buying one of those small water towers, you know the kind that an abandoned town in Kansas might have lying around. That way you can just knock it over when the first gets close.

I don't mind coming over to help you fill it with a hose.

Lucho said...

Ha! Brilliant... and funny because I used to live 50 ft from our towns water tower. Oh the stories I could tell about what a 16 year old living next to a 90ft water tower did.

wende said...

why don't you pull the ultimate prank at your reunion and just move the whole water tower to your back yard?