Firestorm image made by Mary Pope-Handy using ©Canva AI with the prompt “Three houses on a residential street with a fire in the forest behind them.”
The firestorm in Los Angeles has been extremely sad and unsettling for me as I see so many parallels between the hard hit areas there and our Los Gatos community. The same feeling came over me during the 2017 Tubbs fire, part of the Northern California Firestorm which included 8 counties, and which took out a neighborhood in Santa Rosa that had an almost eerie resemblance to pockets of Los Gatos. The huge 2018 Camp fire again hit a nerve.
In 2020 we had the doubly whammy of two local firestorms at once, one on each set of nearby hills. The CZU Lightning Complex (coastal range) and SCU Lightning Complex fire (east foothills) had all of us living near the hills on edge. To top it off, the air quality was horrid.
Much of our area – Los Gatos, Almaden, Monte Sereno, Saratoga, and nearby areas – is at risk of massive destruction from infernos. Not all of it is located in the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone (VHFHSZ). In fact, while most of Altadena was flattened by the Eaton fire last week, probably only 5% of it was in the VHFHSZ. Let’s talk safety.
Protecting our homes in fires and firestorms: defense and mitigation
Increasing our home’s odds of surviving a fire that tears through a neighborhood is obviously advisable. Cal Fire has an excellent set of pages on home fire hardening as well as defensible space and fire safe landscaping. I cannot recommend them strongly enough.
Although I’ve read items on fire hardening before, some items may be a surprise to you as they were to me. For instance, I know that chimneys should have spark arrestors (and rain caps), but the Cal Fire page linked above states, regarding the flue:
Keep closed seasonally: Close the flue during wildfire season when the chimney is not being used.
Regarding vents (for attics and foundations), we know that 1/16-inch to 1/8-inch noncombustible, corrosion-resistant metal mesh over vents is a wise idea to keep embers out. But they have a further suggestion that I hadn’t read before:
- Advanced venting: It is recommended to replace vents with California State Fire Marshal-approved flame and ember-resistant vents (State Fire Marshal Listed Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Products Handbook) for enhanced protection.
Do check out their list, advisories, and resources to learn how to make your home more fire resistant. I opened each openable section on that page and printed it out. We probably have between half and two thirds of the items done, but more seems like a good idea, even out of the risk zones.
Another angle to factor in is landscaping. Some is more obvious than others, like not having bushes and trees growing up over the house or under the eaves since they can convey fire right into your attic. In 2021 I wrote an article here: Defensible space for fire resistance. Better than that is, of course, the Cal Fire page on defensible space.
Lastly, Cal Fire has a page on fire resistant landscaping. A couple of years ago we remodeled our backyard for lower water use and more hardscaping for entertainment space, and fire safe plants were not even something I’d heard of then. But when we get around to remodeling our front yard that will certainly be a consideration.
Firestorms: escape
Once ignition has begun, the first response should be phoning 911 and then evacuating. Depending on many factors, there may be an hour or there may be moments to get out.
By preparing ahead, precious minutes can be saved.
Emergency Evacuation Go Bag
Important papers and documents can be stored in the cloud, but it’s a good idea to also have them in paper form, since the internet, cell signals, and even satellites can fail. You may want to include things relating to your ID (copies of driver’s licenses, passports, social security numbers, and so on), as well as personal records (medical, legal, governmental), house items (deeds, reconveyances, appraisals, inventory, permit records – they are sometimes lost by cities and counties!).
It is a good idea to provide access to the papers to trusted family or friends who are out of the area. You could email them or have a file online and share access with them that way.
Few things are foolproof, but having important items in the cloud and also in paper form at least hedges the bets in case of a firestorm or other disaster.
Beyond important papers, what are good items to have ready to go?
Here’s a list that our brokerage put out – it’s a good start.
I’ve noticed that if I look at 20 Go Bag lists, there will be something different on each one. The American Red Cross suggests including a paper map in case GPS is down and that seems wise.
Here are some other items that you may want to consider:
- Water purifier tablets, since often after a disaster the water isn’t safe to drink for some time.
- Paper towels, toilet paper, perhaps even an emergency toilet (some come in a bag and need only a bucket to use under it), and hand sanitizer in case water is not available.
- A multi function hand crank radio and solar powered radio (it also has a flashlight and can charge a phone, if needed). It runs about $20, depending on where it’s sold.
- Batteries for flashlights and backup batteries for cell phones, tablet computers
- A portable air purifier as smoke from wildfires can be unhealthful (we happened to buy one for a bad allergy season that coincided with a family wedding in the woods – it was very effective)
- Whatever else you need for 3 days without shelter, whether it’s food, water, blankets, pillows, paper & pen, hand lotion, etc.
- For safety’s sake, don’t let your car’s gas level get too low in case there’s a need to evacuate quickly.
- If time, grab the most important sentimental pieces, whether photos, jewelry, or keepsakes – once all of the safety bases have been covered.
If possible, it would be good to keep the emergency evacuation go bag in a fireproof safe or other container which is fire and water resistant. My son told me of a vendor in Pasadena who was in Argentina when the blaze started near Pasadena. Her business survived but her home is gone. Just in case the Go Bag can’t be removed, it would be good to increase its odds of survival. I’m told by friend that many of the supposedly resistant bags won’t make it through an incendiary event, though. More research to do.
Lastly, it’s good to have a meeting place in case communications are completely down. For wildfires, which often originate in the hills, freeways can be a fire break, so perhaps something east of Highway 85 or some other major road would be a good idea.
