Home, lot design ward off wildfire

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

With a potentially bad fire season still ahead, people are paying attention to the lessons of the recent Picnic Rock Fire. Some residents shared their fire-wise ideas with the North Forty News recently.

John and JoAnn Grant, residents of Bonner Peak Ranch, knew something serious was happening when all three phone lines began ringing at 5:30 a.m. It was Thursday, April 1, but this was no April Fool's joke. The Picnic Rock fire, started accidentally on March 30, was blowing toward homes in Bonner Peak Ranch and the Grants' home was in danger. The Grants began packing. The couple had already checked out their back escape route and felt fairly secure, knowing there were two alternatives open to them.

Another thing that made the Grants optimistic was the design of their home. Called a Terra-Dome home, the house is a series of three concrete domes, with 10-inch walls and 4 to 6 feet of dirt covering the domes. The home was built in 1987 for energy efficiency, but during Picnic Rock Fire its design also provided a degree of security for its owners.

The south side is exposed, has windows and includes a greenhouse. Since fire could enter the home through that side, it's not really fireproof. However, there are no wooden decks or shingles that could be ignited with a spark, and the Grants' insurance company rates the home "fire resistant." In addition, the home is out in the open, rather than in the trees. This fall, the Grants plan to install a pond in front of the home. In case flames lick at their doorstep again, the pond will serve as a firebreak and a water source for fighting the fire.

Another family, the Kaufmans on Obenchain Road, came much closer to being gobbled up by the Picnic Rock Fire. The family members, who own three adjacent parcels, were very conscious of fire danger when designing their homes, and they also got some unexpected benefits from roads and flat areas near their homes.

Harold Kaufman, a retired physics professor, said the three family homes incorporate various fire-resistant materials, including HardiBoard siding, metal roofing and Class A fire-resistant shingles made of asphalt and fiberglass. Also, Kaufman and his wife, Elinor, put a 15-foot gravel skirt around their home.

The surprises came with two features not thought of as fire protection. First, the area for the gravel skirting was made flat. Second, the driveway to Brian Kaufman's home, located up a steep ravine, meandered back and forth up the ravine to achieve a lower grade.

Kaufman noted that fires tend to burn fiercely in ravines and canyons since they function as chimneys, carrying the heat and fire upward. The meandering driveway served as an effective firebreak, he explained, not only because it had no vegetation but because of the change in grade. When hot air and fire encounter a flat area, Kaufman explained, momentum makes the hot air go straight up instead of jumping across the flat area.

The flat, graveled area outside his home had the same effect. Fire burned right up to the edge of the gravel, Kaufman said, while the house didn't have as much as a scorch mark. "The house was saved by the design of the firebreak," he said, which included the level grade as well as the gravel.

Kaufman suggested that others in timbered areas build similar firebreaks below their homes, either with a flat area or a low wall.

The Colorado State Forest Service has developed a useful list of fire-wise ideas to use when building a new home or making an existing home more fire resistant. Check out these ideas at www.firewise.org or www.colostate.edu/Depts/CSFS.