A New Approach To Fighting Western Fires

Firefighters Less Willing To Risk Lives To Save Unprotected Homes From Fiercer Wildfires

(CBS/AP) 
So far this year, wildfires have consumed 8.2 million acres nationwide, an area larger than Maryland, and most of it in the West, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. That figure is fast approaching last year's record of 9.9 million acres, and the fire season can last through November in many parts of the West, particularly in fire-prone Southern California.

By Sept. 26, wildfires had destroyed 409 houses across the West, more than 1½ times last year's total of 263, federal statistics show. California, as usual, has the biggest toll, with 338 houses burned so far this year.

From the West Coast to a few Plains states, 26 million houses - 40 percent of the housing stock - are in forests or perched on the edge of flammable wildlands, according to Volker C. Radeloff, a professor of forest ecology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

"There's more at stake," Radeloff said. "Everybody loves to live close to the wildlands and the houses are getting dispersed, making them harder to defend."

From his deck, Chris Horton was enjoying the national forest view on a Sunday in June near Lake Tahoe, Calif., when he picked up reports of a wildfire over a police scanner. His wife, Joyce, heard the roar of the wind-whipped fire over a nearby ridge. When the flames came into view, they had 15 minutes to escape before fire engulfed their house and leveled 253 others, leaving only chimneys standing.

The Hortons regard wildfires as a small risk to pay for the beautiful summers and the fun winters, with hiking, rock climbing, boating and skiing.

"It's always in the back of your mind, like hurricanes are for other people," said Joyce Horton, a hospital receptionist, who with her husband, a postal clerk, plans to rebuild with insurance money.

Wildfires have killed 113 firefighters in the U.S. over the past five years, including seven this year as of mid-September, according to government figures.

Heart attacks and vehicle and aircraft crashes are the leading causes of death. The past five years logged 11 "burnover" and fire-entrapments deaths, according to a database maintained by the National Interagency Coordination Center.

Firefighter deaths over the past decade are averaging around 18 a year, up from 6.6 during the 1930s, according to Forest Service statistics. Last year's death toll was two dozen, double the number in 2005.

Five firefighters died last October trying to defend a half-built mountain house in the foothills near Banning, Calif., about 90 miles east of Los Angeles. They were overcome by a 90-foot wall of flame. An auto mechanic accused of setting the wildfire awaits trial on charges of murder.

"It strikes a nerve in us that a lot of our firefighting brothers and sisters are being lost protecting structures," said Bodie Shaw, deputy fire director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

[hwy71so]

I don''t understand why these people wouldn''t want a buffer zone. Doesn''t make sense. Even if the house is bricked and covered with a metal roof the heat produced by the fires would cause considerable damage if not affect ignition of itself.

A buffer zone only makes sense.

My hat is off to these men and women who risk their lives protecting the lives and properties of these areas of high risk. I just can''t believe these people won''t do their part.

I guess, let the houses burn...

...without compensation.

[aznyron-2009]

if you use cement block walls and steel roofs
your home would have a better chance to survive the fire you would also save money on fire insurance
and like the fire chief said clear the area around your home my home in Thailand is 4" block walls with steel framing and tile roof with 4" block walls inside the house with concrete colums every 4 meters (13 ft) to support the roof etc and if your roof is a hip roof instead of gable you also increase the strenth and also close the gap on gable roof
no more lesson today time to go to bed