Making a plan - Wildfires

I wanted to spend some time on wildfires because they are affecting places we haven't been expecting. Some forest fires happen every year, and they can endanger homes, but we are seeing worse things here.

The earth is getting hotter, and when it is dry, it also becomes highly combustible. A spark from harvesting machinery can destroy that harvest and all the surrounding ones, because fire can move through grass more quickly than through trees. "Playing" with fireworks or arson (as suspected in Greece) can turn quickly out of control.

One additional potential issue with Greece is that there were people vacationing. Being unfamiliar with the area would have made getting oriented and out more difficult. Also, apparently the resort was not built considering fire safety.

Your family should have an emergency plan. Probably the fire part of that is thinking of a house fire, where meeting in front of the mailbox is fine and the fire department will arrive soon. Wildfires are different.

There is some excellent information available at http://www.readyforwildfire.org/Pre-Evacuation-Preparation/. I do encourage that, because it may cause you to think about things you haven't before.

Those thoughts may come from other sources. A recent news segment showed law enforcement in Washington visiting home owners and talking about risk reduction such as not storing firewood under the flammable and connected to your house deck, and clearing out dry brush near the house.

Even though we see images that look like solid moving walls of flame that will destroy everything in their path, the destruction will then seem random afterward, with intact homes near homes that have been burned to the ground.

Some of it probably is random, but some of it can be if there were things in place that allowed the fire to take hold, and maybe explode. That's when moving away the propane tanks and turning off the gas can make a difference. Maybe dampening the house - but not leaving the water running so as not to decrease water pressure for fire fighters - can help.

Many of your normal preparedness steps will be helpful for a wildfire, but because it disrupts a large area in a why that is not completely predictable, there are ways in which you need to be able to think differently.

Health may be affected even if home safety never is. Smoke can worsen air quality. This is true for children, the elderly, and for those with respiratory conditions, especially asthma. Being prepared with medication, so that inhalers are stocked and easy to access, or that someone on oxygen is not cutting it close on refills, will help.

You may need to keep people inside on a bad air quality day. Do you have air conditioning? Do you want to start using stronger filters? They are more expensive, but for some people it will make a difference. Think about those things now.

It is not just forests burning now; one fire was caused by a spark of harvesting equipment, and started burning the harvest. Food storage is still valuable. Growing your own food (to the extent possible) is still valuable. We don't talk about some of those things as much as we used to, but they are still needed.

We recently saw a television station shut down due to the fire, and if you are going to have to evacuate you cannot stay watching the coverage anyway. Make sure you have a portable radio with extra batteries so you can get updates.

It is great to have different family meeting places set up for different types of emergencies, but they may need to change. Not only can wildfires come from different directions, but they can change direction based on winds and other factors.

It is reasonable to follow community evacuation plans to near where the shelters are, but be warned that in large evacuations shelters and hotels quickly fill up. This not only means that your family may some day have a chance to serve others by opening your home, but you may need to accept that service. Also, as you are packing the car it is not a bad idea to include some camping equipment.

These have often been rural areas, where there is the possibility of having livestock, which seriously increases evacuation time. Think about your animals in advance, even if that just means that one of the many dangers of allowing cats outdoors or dogs off-leash and not in fenced areas is that you may not be able to find your pets when you need them.

But the other really important thing to remember is that this is a community wide issue. Know your neighbors and their needs. Help each other. Do you have older neighbors? Neighbors with disabilities? Neighbors with a lot of children? Neighbors who are not native English speakers? You may be able to be very helpful to them, and it is the right thing to do.

Part of emergency preparedness is surviving, but we need the survival of the soul, as well as the body. These are perilous times, and the most important thing is that our hearts do not wax cold.

I will try and write more about that next week.