Alberta Fires....

[Gunneegoogoo]

A fire of this magnitude will be creating it's own weather system and will be floating out burning embers several kilometers in front of it. Asphalt shingles and combustible siding are very easily ignited in this type of situation.

If the roof surfaces of buildings are kept wet with something as simple as yard sprinklers set on the roof peaks many buildings may be saved. There are many other ways of helping to defend your buildings from wildfires some of which are outlined in British Columbia FireSmart manual which can be downloaded HERE

The fire jumped the Athabasca River where it is 1km wide.

 

[ratherbefishin]

I replaced my cedar shake roof several years ago with a raised rib concealed fastener metal roof....came with a 40 year guarantee ,I didn't do it for fire reasons ,but it looks good....and since I am in the country,with trees around it might help preventing igniting from burning embers

 

[Gunneegoogoo]

I replaced my cedar shake roof several years ago with a raised rib concealed fastener metal roof....came with a 40 year guarantee ,I didn't do it for fire reasons ,but it looks good....and since I am in the country,with trees around it might help preventing igniting from burning embers

A very very strong move.

 

[trevj]

Good letter to the editor in today's Times Colonist by Edo Nyland, retired superintendent of the Yukon Forest Service who said there was a publication called 'Guidelines for Settlements'based on the Alberta 'Firesmart: Protecting your community from Wildfife' ...
There as also a publication called' Forest Fire News' which were sent to every government agency...but as usual, the guidelines and warnings were ignored...and politicians are reluctant to put money into pro active solutions when no crisis exists,cutting budgets to fund other pet projects that get them elected.I'm no expert or authority but it makes you wonder if something as simple as clear cutting a mile wide firebreak might have prevented this disaster.....one thing is certain and that is,no matter what it cost it would have been a whole lot cheaper

A clearcut firebreak is only as good as the fuel that is removed from it. The grass that tends to grow in large, unmaintained open spaces is a major fire risk in it's own right, and a cigarette butt out the window, or a spark from any source, finds easy conditions for lighting it off. Cutting back the forest is easy, keeping the area maintained, is an easy target for cost cutting.

About the only plus to the grass, is that it makes for a very easy back-burn situation if it happens to be in the right place.

I lit and burned off about 40 acres of accumulated grass this spring, to open the area up as pasture again. The rate that the fire spread and traveled was....extraordinary! The two of us had a right time simply keeping it from completely running away, despite starting with a pretty sound plan. Too bad the winds didn't follow the plan! It got away on me and burnt a few fence posts that I would have rather not, but mainly it only burnt what I wanted anyway, but the potential for a runaway into another larger area of dry growth was definitely there.

I think it would be very interesting to look at the cost vs. effectiveness of having say, a sprinkler or misting sprayer, built on to each house as part of a protection system. If it was practical to do so, I would think that the ability to pound a bunch of water into an area would be a means to create the kind of moist micro-climate around the area that would perhaps give it some measure of protection. Maybe.

In reality, the odds are that all will fade from the collective memory, and it will be right back to the same as it always was.

Cheers
Trev