in this episode i want to go over a list that i gleaned and things i've done over
the course of time to defend my home against potential wildfires stay tuned
do
so
welcome back to pine meadows hobby farm i'm your host jerry hansen we experience no less
than three major wildfires per year all within a 10 mile radius of the homestead yep
three at least three minimum every year all within a 10 mile radius of our farm
now over the years we've had to evacuate several times my son being a wildland firefighter and
experiencing many fires as well as protecting homes from wildfires gave me some excellent advice
on how to prepare for wildfires and mitigate against the damage from them
fire forestry management personnel have been to my homestead on a few occasions over the years and
they've given me a thumbs up they like what they see because i started from the moment i purchased
the homestead to start mitigating and setting up my defensive zones and that's what we're going
to talk about today is five steps i took to help mitigate damage to my structures on the homestead
some of those steps are recommended or required by the fire marshal and that is
there's three steps or two steps at least setting up a 30
foot defensive space around your building mainly your home and number two setting up a hundred foot
perimeter defensive space around your home and number three which should be added as number one
is create a escape plan in case you have to get the hell out of dodge we're going to cover those
in this video whether sparked by nature or man or failure of equipment which is man
there are steps we could take to mitigate damage to our structures on our home property whether
it's in the urban areas or in the wilderness the first thing on my list after living in a
high risk wildfire zone is plan my escape route first thing in that number one category is easy
park your cars back in so they're facing out so if you have to grab your keys and grab your lug
ones and skedaddle in an instant you're not wasting any time valuable time of backing up
turning around and heading up the driveway it could mean your life
make sure your escape route your egress is free from dead and dying trees or even a tree
leaning over your driveway that could catch on fire and fall in front of you like what happened
on the episode we were creating for discovery channel's hit tv show homestead rescue yeah
they put us to the test that woke me up besides removing the fuels that could hinder your exit
i've added another feature that in the event that we had a problem i mounted a fire extinguisher
on this tree on our way out so if something god forbid should happen i can grab that fire
extinguisher with me and i can douse a fire just enough to get us out of here now is the
time to remove fuels from around your egress or your escape route so you guys can safely escape
so also since we're on the scope of vehicles i want to show you guys what i carry i carry
two gallons of water i also carry a folding shovel and i carry a fire extinguisher in the car just in
case if i happen to buy uh uh to pass by a small uh spot fire along the side of the road i can
hit it really quick and get it doused before it spreads and burns my neighbors
in the next set of things i've done to prepare my homestead and it's actually number one
among the fire marshals uh line of defense
is create a 30 foot perimeter around your home remove all vegetation and all combustible material
trim the grass keep it irrigated i took the extra steps of laying down a weed barrier and pea gravel
eight foot out from the house and trimmed it we'll have grass here irrigated but i have an eight foot
zone that flames will not cross to and get close to the house
also adding gravel paths and lanes and driveways within that 30 foot defensible zone creates
another flame barrier from getting close to your house the third section on my list which is number
two with the fire marshal is creating a safety zone defensible zone 100 foot around your house
you've got your 30 foot zone now you're going to clear out more on your 100 foot but you don't have
to clear out all the grasses just keep them hacked down limb up your trees remove all the underbrush
the third thing as a landowner i needed to focus on was creating that second part which is
creating a hundred foot defensible space around the home in this area
i removed all thick underbrush in unwanted bushes at the time when i purchased the farm
i did not own a chainsaw i made do with what i had which was a saw loppers and pruners
to begin the long tedious task of clearing the fuel to make a safe environment for my homestead
i also added goats to the farm to aid in the mitigation of underbrush which as you can see here
they have done an excellent job this is the same area you just seen in the clip
with my using the loppers and pruners looks cleaner and safer huh i also try to keep
this irrigated as well another thing i need to do was remove all the low tree limbs
up to about eight or nine feet on larger trees i cut down and cut up all the dead
and dying timber off the land to reduce fire fuels what you see here is the result of my
hard work also cutting down grasses and removing vegetation 30 feet around all of my outbuildings
the fourth item on my list is generally what nobody really stops and thinks about a few
years ago we had a fire breakout one 000 feet from my back door and caused us once again to have to
evacuate this fire was sparked by a malfunctioning transformer with sparks landing in dry grass
since i have a transformer on a pole in my yard i chose to rototill the soil around
the pole cut down the grasses around that in the future i plan to again laying down
weed barrier and pea gravel so i will not have to keep doing this year after year
this is the second year i've had to do the fifth item on my list my number five category
is entirely up to you this is where i became creative and tried to figure out
how can i stop fires especially from a neighboring property that is truly wildland and uninhabited
with the tall grasses as explosive fuels from an amber from a nearby fire i took a few steps to try
and prevent flames from encroaching on my land i placed repurposed corrugated roofing material
horizontally and fastened them to the fence creating a fire shield i have also rototilled
along the fence removing any fuels on my side of the fence and we'll be adding weed barrier
and pea gravel on the lung fence making it tidy and neat and fire defensible i also am placing
cement at the bottom of the fence so weeds will never grow there i also built my outbuildings
with metal roofs and a bonus when filming the show for homestead rescue they supplied us with
a metal roof resource for the house protecting it against amber's from a nearby wildfire
there you have it my five steps which include the steps recommended by the us forest service
and the fire marshal's office to mitigate against fire damage and living with wildland wildfires
in the event there is no way of escape i prepared a place i have prepared an open
non-combustible space within my vegetable garden as i lay in more gravel paths
and irrigate also plowing the adjoining space for a future garden space creating even more defense
against fire i have added a large water storage tank to give us some extra tools
in the event the power grid does go down we can at minimum keep our safe area wet chances are
we may not be rescued by helicopter like we did in our fire drill the rainey's put together for
us on the television episode you do not have to live in the wilderness to be subjected to
the dangers of wildfires as we witnessed a while back as we witnessed a while back we had several
communities in our neighborhood laid waste to ash why some homes did not burn others did
defensible spaces is the key i hope everyone develops a plan and begins to work on it today
the landscape you are looking at this fire is fresh is but a a few days old
the footage you were saying are is raw footage from the perspective of the wildland firefighters
we do have a plan and we have been taking precautions since we moved into the wilderness
30 years ago i'm your host jerry hansen this is pine meadows hobby farm we're a
frugal homestead to kite in the cascade ranges of the pacific northwest yes in wildfire territory
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