The Carpenter one fire started by lightning on July first 2013
in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area in southern Nevada.
Over the course of the next two weeks, it burned an estimated 27,000 acres.
During this time, two different communities were at risk.
Trout Canyon was at risk with about thirty five homes
and Kyle Canyon was at risk with from the fire with about 335 homes.
In both cases, a combination of fuels reduction treatments among the homes themselves
and in the surrounding forest lands were key to providing firefighters with a
place which they could successfully defend these communities.
One of our biggest challenges was the fuel loading actually around the structures.
There's been tremendous work in here as you can see behind me
that the agencies have done to reduce the fuel loading
but it's a two part process with fuels reduction.
It's the agencies in the surrounding areas and the homeowners themselves.
And one big challenge that we had with the homes themselves
was that there was quite a bit of combustibles and quite a bit of fuels right up against
the houses.
So I would encourage all homeowners to take an active role in fuels mitigation
on their property.
And work together with the other homeowners in adjacent with the
local agencies working in the greater area of the landscape
to make it easier and safer for firefighters to work when there are fires in their areas.
Fire can happen in any property and it takes a community effort.
And all the communities to be involved in fire reduction,
fuels reduction projects around their property.
It will eliminate the chance for fire to spread from property to property.
So defensible space, a lot of people, homeowners have a misconception of defensible space,
they think when we come into their property we're going to clear cut all the trees.
That's not the case.
What we try to do is eliminate the fuels that carry the fire from the ground up to the trees.
So trees right next to the property, they need to be thinned out.
Ladder fuels from the ground up to the tree need to be thinned out.
Sometimes it does take elimination of some trees that are clumped together,
and needs to be opened up some more so fire does not spread from tree to tree.
So we need to focus on those things.
We have definitely a lot of properties here in the subdivisions they still need a lot
of work, it takes the community effort to make sure
the fire doesn't progress into the community itself.
So yeah, there's still definitely a lot of work to be done.
Well defensible spacing around the houses, You know 100 foot clearance around the houses,
Thinning out the forest around the houses, No fuels next to or stacked right next to
the properties, clean up of debri around porches,
make sure that anything surrounding the properties is not adjacent or close to the house.
Defensible construction material, metal roofs, to that effect.
To make sure that they are cleaning annually or quarterly is all the pine needles around
the property.
Those accumulation of pine needles on the roof, gutters, rain gutters, corners of the
property, that's what carries the fire, an ember falls
into that spot and it spreads the fire.
So we need to make sure we are cleaning around those properties,
specifically those pine needles, that's what's carrying the fire.
The smaller the fuel, the more likely it is to be ignited by a small ember, so the removal
of those.
Some of the dry fuel such as fire wood, people collect
to heat their homes in the winter time, those things need to be away from
a homes deck or even under a deck and in a remote area away from the structure.
I think the key to fuel reduction projects is to remember that it truly takes the community.
It's a community effort, it's homeowners, it's agencies,
federal, state, it's non profit organizations, it's everyone involved, and local fire departments,
everyone needs to do their part.
If you're wondering what your part is, ask your local fire department,
ask your local forest office, ask your division of forestry foresters,
there's a great website, www.livingwithfire.info that can give you a bunch of information as
a homeowner, as a landscaper, what to do in order to try
to protect your home.