PFA continues assessing wildfire survivability

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

Living in the arid West, there are always good reasons to be concerned about wildfires. Despite the recent snowstorm in northern Colorado, conditions can go from soggy to scorched very quickly.

One reason for concern this year is the mountain pine beetle, which has moved into the area and is killing lodgepole and Ponderosa pines. Dead trees mean more fuel for fires.

Beetle kill is already evident in the Red Feather Lakes area, the upper Poudre Canyon, Cherokee Park, the Red Mountain area and Rocky Mountain National Park. Poudre Fire Authority expects Horsetooth Mountain Park to be impacted heavily by the bug this year.

With ever-present concerns about fire, PFA is busy educating people about fire-readiness. The agency is also planning how PFA will fight wildland fires when they occur. An important part of that process is the Wildland Outreach and Planning Initiative, a project that began about three years ago. Heading up the effort is Sean Jones, PFA's wildland team coordinator.

The project involves assessment of individual properties for their "fire survivability." Firefighters with PFA visit each property in selected areas to assess how difficult it would be to protect the structures in case of fire. At the same time, PFA educates landowners about how to make their properties safer.

In the case of a large fire, properties that have the best chance of survival and pose the least risk to firefighters will likely be the first to be defended.

PFA has identified four areas within its jurisdiction with the highest level of wildfire hazard: Whale Rock up Rist Canyon, Redstone Canyon northwest of Masonville, and two areas around Horsetooth Reservoir which firefighters are calling Horsetooth South and Horsetooth North.

These high-hazard areas have high-density subdivisions, Jones explained, making them more susceptible to property losses in case of a major fire.

Property assessments are finished in Whale Rock and Redstone Canyon, and they're underway in the South Horsetooth area. When assessments are finished in these areas, PFA will move on to other rural areas that are not so densely populated.

Fire-readiness graded

Property owners in the two Horsetooth areas have been contacted by PFA about the assessment process. Firefighters go on private property only when they have the landowner's permission. If permission is not granted, assessments are done from the road.

As part of the assessment process, firefighters grade individual properties on their fire-readiness. This information is fed into a high-tech computer program called RedZone, which generates maps showing where homes and other structures are located. Color-coding on the map identifies the risk level of each property.

Properties are rated green, yellow or red. Green properties are those that would likely survive a wildfire with no intervention from fire departments. Those marked yellow can likely survive with some intervention, and red properties do not have a good chance of surviving a wildfire even with intervention.

The rating system will be used in large fire events, to help firefighters prioritize their work.

"It tells battalion chiefs where they can do the most good and still keep their firefighters safe," Jones said.

He emphasized that even "red" properties will be protected by fire departments if the fire is small, but with large fires there's not enough time or manpower to go everywhere.

"Very quickly, we have to make a decision and act," he pointed out.

When rating a home for survivability, firefighters look at a multitude of factors. The most important of these, Jones said, is whether there's enough defensible space around the home. While that's the easiest problem to solve, it's also where firefighters encounter the most resistance from homeowners.

"People like the sense of living in the forest," Jones said, and some do not like to cut down any trees close to their homes.

A second big concern is how susceptible the property is to "ember cast." According to Jones, it's usually not the fire itself that ignites a building, but flaming embers that fall on the roof or other combustible materials around the home. Buildings that are least susceptible to burning embers have metal roofs, with stucco or cement-based siding.

Shake shingles are the worst hazard when it comes to embers, followed closely by stacks of firewood next to the home. Large decks also offer a fertile field for burning embers. Homeowners should stack firewood well away from buildings, and they should also sweep out dry pine needles that build up in gutters or on decks.

Other concerns that affect a home's rating are access and signage. A home with a narrow, two-track driveway and no place to turn around is more difficult to defend and can put firefighters in danger. It's important for firefighters to find an address quickly, so the house number should be visible from the road.

Education comes first

The most important part of the Wildland Outreach and Planning Initiative is public education. While they're doing assessments, firefighters talk with property owners whenever possible and make recommendations about how they can make their properties safer. The property owner must decide whether to follow that advice, since PFA has no enforcement authority.

The education component is expanding this year. Jones and his team are developing a full-color brochure about living safely in a wildland/urban interface area. They're also creating a web site with educational material. Jones said when the web site is up, hopefully in June or July, property owners will be able to check their assessment results online.

One of the next steps for the program is to have computers on all wildland fire engines, so that RedZone information is at the ready. In the meantime, Jones said, PFA is relying on "old-fashioned paper maps." Since the paper maps are generated by RedZone software, they already have properties marked in red, yellow and green. The maps also identify staging areas for fire crews and nearby water sources.

In the last two years, Larimer County has escaped the big blazes while neighboring counties have had some fast-moving, dangerous wildfires. That reprieve has given local firefighters and property owners time to improve fire-survivability.