2022 Craig RFD Reupload_mixdown.mp3
2022 Craig RFD Reupload_mixdown.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
2022 Craig RFD Reupload_mixdown.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Katie:
This episode is a repost from a previous episode, but the information is especially relevant today given the current drought conditions. Redding Homeowners should be very aware of the home ignition zone. That's the first five feet of property surrounding your house.
Steve:
Fire Marshal Craig Wittner discusses the best things you can do to keep your family and your property safe from wildfire. He also talks about the key reasons many homes were lost in the 2018 car fire. Spoiler alert, most of these were home ignition zone problems.
Katie:
Give this episode a lesson and start taking steps in the next few weeks to harden your home against wildfire. Fire season is just around the corner and spring is the perfect time to prep. With that, we'll let Craig give you the tips you need to get started.
Craig Wittner:
So my name is Craig Wittner, work for the Redding Fire Department. I've been with the city about 20 years and about 16 of that with the fire department for many years. I was a fire inspector. The investigations and inspections in the last three years as fire marshal, I just oversee those subjects public education, investigations, code enforcement, those types of things. Fire department policy. And one of those major topics is, of course, public education about reducing risk. So glad to talk about it today.
Steve:
We're happy to have you here. Two of the main topics we were hoping to cover today are both on kind of wildfire mitigation in general and and how the Redding community can kind of best prepare their homes and harden their homes against wildfire. And then obviously talk a little bit about the car fire and some of the key takeaways that you and your team found from that and how, again, how we can best prepare ourselves. So maybe we start with just wildfire mitigation in general.
Craig Wittner:
Okay. So folks who have heard me before and I'll say it again, I sound like a broken record of waste time talking about the same topics, but they're important. I'll start off by saying, in the last 20 years in the fire service, if you listen to safety tips, whether it's Cal Fire or whatever your local agency is, you'll recognize the term defensible space that is important. So basically the state law is that all of us should have required to have at least 100 foot defensible space from our homes or structures. That doesn't mean clear cutting. That means strategically reducing the fuels to the extent that when a fire does occur, it doesn't have the speed and intensity to get to our homes. That's the goal. And in addition to defensible space, we've learned about a term called the home ignition zone. Now, the term may be newer to us. The theory is not that there is or reality really is that we can have all the defensible space that we need and more. But if we are weak, link is essentially how we set up our homes. And it has to do with vegetation, landscape, bark, wood fences, storage, potted plants, wooden decks, those types of things. And I'll step back a little bit. In 2008, we adopted state standards for construction, essentially construction standards for buildings in the wildland urban interface or WUI. So basically prior to 2008, you had a variety of ways to build a home where we interface with our environment.
Craig Wittner:
The wildland after 2008, we have some stricter standards. We know that if we build an ignition resistant home with existing ignition resistant materials, we reduce our risk and increase our chances of surviving unscathed in the event of a wildfire. What we learned since then is that even if we apply our construction standards as we should, we can still lose our homes because our weak links are at least threefold. Primarily, what we learned during Carr was landscape. Vegetation really does affect the vulnerability of our homes. So we as people, we like to decorate our homes, we like to have plants and living things around our house. Unfortunately, that's a detractor when you talk about wildfire. So what we observe during car is the number one thing that affected the damage or destruction of our homes in the city was landscape vegetation. When you plant that around the exterior walls of your home, and particularly those of us and I was guilty of this, too, who don't maintain it free and clear of dead litter. That is nothing more than a light flashy fuel and very susceptible to ignition by the millions of little firebrands that are flying embers coming from a fire. We don't have to be right up against the fire to to have a threat. Those firebrands come down and they easily land in light fuels like leaves and needles and such.
Katie:
And you're talking about like ash and burning leaves and things that are actually falling from the sky. Right? Like if there is a fire somewhere else, there's these are the little things that are falling into your yard and then catching other things on fire.
Craig Wittner:
It's like sitting around a campfire. You see the sparks and stuff that come up off the fire and sometimes they fly over our shoulders and sometimes they land on us. Right. Well, during a wildfire. Billions and trillions. So those things are flying around. And during car fire we had ignitions that were well over a half a mile from the main fire. Firebrands firebrands are are easily responsible for burning down neighborhoods and entire areas because they can travel actually well over a mile in advance of the main fire. Well, those firebrands come down and they land in the punky bark. They land in the the needles, the leaves on top of our roof and our gutter on our patio furniture, you name it. And they can easily start small fires. And so vegetation was ignited all over the city and the area is adjacent to the fire, the Land Park subdivision down there off of Harland. I mean, they were landing everywhere. And so when they landed in the vegetation, the vegetation starts burning and it's right up against the exterior walls of our home. And it also, in addition to impacting the exterior walls, it burns up our walls and enters our attic space through our events. So strange little phenomenon, if you've ever seen it, it looks like it's being sucked up into the attic space like a vacuum cleaner. And so it's another way that those flying embers are. Firebrands can get in our home and actually set our home on fire.
Craig Wittner:
So that's vegetation. The next major factor was landscape bark. Landscape bark is plentiful, it's cheap. And even if you're not real able bodied, you can obtain some. You can put it down and get instant gratification for making your landscaping look nicer. Landscape bark honestly is really good for one thing, and that's taking fire from point A to point B and it has 100% consumption unless somebody acts on it by putting the fire out or it burns itself out. When we do landscape with it, we put it right up against the foundations of our home, and in many times it's contacting our exterior siding. Doesn't matter whether it's wood siding or stucco, non combustible siding, that heat easily, easily transfers from the burning bark to the wood framing members or other combustible members of our homes and causes ignition. We have a lot of studies after car and other fires where that was the case on many homes. The third factor was wood fences. Now what fences are not going the way again. Wood is plentiful. You can work with it and it's relatively affordable. Most of us have wood fences contacting both sides of our home and in a fire condition. It really is nothing more than a slow burning fuse that actually burns and contacts the exterior wall of your home. And just like vegetation, while the wood fence is burning, it's impacting the exterior wall and then burning up the wall underneath the eave and entering your attic space through the events.
Craig Wittner:
So I'm not suggesting that we have to stop using wood fences, but an alternative would be replace the first five feet of those wood fences that contacts the home with something non-combustible like wrought iron or chainlink or something of that nature. Another thing that we can do to reduce the risk of embers or fire getting in the home is replacing your events with fire related events. There's a couple of different companies out there that produce them. Vulcan events of one company brand guard Vince is another, and then another company called Embers Out LLC. They manufacture products which have been listed and approved by the California State Fire Marshal. As for using your construction methods in the wild and urban interface, and even if we're not talking a fire season condition by having fire rated events, you can reduce the impact and the potential for other types of fires to get into your home. Two garbage cans, for example. Most of us put our garbage cans in the same spot. It's right on the side of the garage underneath the eave. And when garbage cans burn, for a variety of reasons, whether it's ashes improperly dumped cigarettes or something of that nature, most of those cans are just plastic and plastic burns vigorously. And once again, it burns up and enters our attic space so we can apply our fire rated events in location strategically to reduce the risk of fire getting into our attic space.
Steve:
And Craig, with regard to those events, I guess two fold. How much is to some of those fire fire related events cost and what is the process for updating a home's current events? Is that something that kind of your average person can do or does it have to be professionally installed?
Craig Wittner:
That's an excellent question. So your typical event in the majority of our homes out there might include probably about five bucks a piece that was installed by the contractor when your home was built and most complied with. Even the ones that comply with current code with an eighth or 16th inch mesh still have been proven to allow the passage of heat and fire brands. The cost, your average cost of, say, a Vulcan vent or brand guard vent, a fire rated event is about $45. So the the cost is somewhat substantial when you're looking at replacing. A multitude of them. If you replace ten of them, then you're looking at almost 500 bucks. But the long term risk reduction, in my opinion, is definitely worth it. If a person says, you know, there's no way I can replace 25 vents in my home at $45 apiece, one could consider strategically replacing some of those vents where they have landscaped vegetation, where they store their garbage cans, things like that. So landscape, vegetation, bark and wood fences were the top three things. And kind of the remainder of that is just general storage items, combustible patio furniture, wood decks, potted plants, wood piles, or another one. I mean, during inclement weather, none of us want to have to walk several feet to get wood for the fireplace. We want to conveniently reach over the deck or something and get our wood. So if you do that during the summer times and hot weather months, you want to move that woodpile away from the home and out of underneath the roof eaves. And so there's a multitude of things that we store around the outside walls of our home. And so folks listening to this can really reduce their risk by making that first five feet around the outside walls of their home, which is called the home ignition zone or structure ignition zone. Make that free and clear of the items that we just talked about, you know, reduce to as much as you possibly can the amount of vegetation that's within five feet of your home or severely cut it back.
Katie:
And does that even mean green vegetation? Like what if it's something that's really bright and green and vibrant? I mean, does that does that stuff burn just as easily as, I don't know, something like Juniper or something that people know is a little bit more fire prone?
Craig Wittner:
Yeah, you got it. So the answer is, is yes and no. If you have even though it's green vegetation right now, it's irrigated and watered, fire really doesn't care. It may take a little bit longer to dry it out, but it's eventually going to burn. The key to that really is maintenance. So all plants shed their leaves or needles and they build up on the ground. It's called death. Well, you need to remove that. That's what's easily ignited by those firebrands. So once again, you don't have to remove the plants, but you can reduce them in size and you can maintain those areas free and clear of the dead litter, which is easily ignited by firebrands. So by no means I suggest that people need to rip out all their beautiful landscaping, but but strongly consider reducing the amount and keep that free and clear of leaf litter.
Steve:
And with regard to to tan bark, would you recommend river rock or some type of rock material other than timber?
Craig Wittner:
Absolutely. So we can still use landscape bark, but we need to be smart about it and be strategic. Do not use it around the exterior walls of your home or around your decks or fences. Use it maybe in an island or something away from the home, but instead replace those areas either with just bare dirt. That was my choice around my home because I had lots of landscape bark as well, or replace it with something non-combustible like cobbles or river rock or something like that, which you know is not going to burn. You can still have a decorative environment and really reduce your risk.
Katie:
So if we talk about storage items and decoration items, I mean, people can't do much about a deck, right? Doesn't that I mean, that would be a really expensive thing to replace or are there alternatives to materials if you're thinking about building a deck that you would build a deck out of fire resistant materials? Or if you have a deck, is there a stain or anything you can lay down? That would help.
Craig Wittner:
Another excellent question. So for people who are building a new home, consider more ignition resistant materials like Trex decking or a some type of a composite decking other than natural wood. I have natural wood decks at my house and I love them. The key to folks, those of us who have natural wood decks, is to keep them free of litter. If it's an elevated deck, you want to make sure to remove the weeds and combustible vegetation under and around the deck. And you're going to have to maintain your deck free and clear of build up or leaf litter in between those decking boards where your boards attached to the stringers or Joyce is always a buildup of material. That's the stuff that falls through and it lands on that. Joyce Down below that stuff is easily ignited. Well, we responded to fires many times over the years from not just firebrands, but maybe a barbecue, ashes or cigarettes that happened to land in that little space. So take a garden hose and keep that stuff sprayed off. For those of us who have existing decks, it's really about maintenance.
Katie:
And then I also wanted to touch on something I found really interesting during the Carr fire was a lot of people think stucco homes can't burn. But you're saying again that if you had bark or vegetation under there that it kind of creeps underneath that stucco and then up into the walls, correct?
Craig Wittner:
It does, absolutely. So a good example of that was one of the subdivisions called Land Park Subdivision. Over off of Wood, Aventura and Keswick Dam Road. They have an even mixture of pre 2008 and post 2008 structures, meaning homes that were built with construction or ignition resistant materials and those that were not. They burned fairly evenly because of the items that we just talked about vegetation, landscape, bark, wood fences and the like. So in the case of stucco exterior siding, that is one of the approved materials to use in the in those areas, the wildland urban interface areas. However, the weak link is landscape bark and other combustibles that you put up against the exterior wall of the home. In the case of stucco, where you put bark on the ground, it's going to be under what we call the weep screed. It's nothing more than air openings at the bottom of the stucco wall that allow moisture to to get out of the home. Well, fire and heat gets right up into the wheat screed and directly impacts the wood framing underneath. And in the case, for example, if if it doesn't get in through the wheat screed, that energy is easily transmitted through that thin wall of stucco to the framing members inside. So the key is to eliminate the weak link, eliminate those combustibles in that first five feet of our home, and you dramatically reduce your risk. Then the ignition resistant materials can do their job. But we we kind of abate or omit the thought of having ignition resistant materials if we're using combustible items on the outside walls of our homes.
Katie:
So it really does come down to that home ignition zone. And what you're planting and what you're putting around your home is so important.
Craig Wittner:
It is.
Steve:
And Craig, with regard to those folks that live on acreage or have have some property, what's the what are kind of the rules and regulations around clear cutting? How far away from your home should you be? You know, again, addressing overgrowth and things of that nature.
Craig Wittner:
So the state laws is fairly simple and it applies to all of us, whether we have acreage or not. Our responsibility as a property owner is to provide at least 100 feet of defensible space. There's a couple of different zones. We just talked about the home ignition zone, which is that first five feet, but the first 30 feet from the exterior walls of our home is generally referred to as Zone one, and that's filled with your ornamentals, your landscape, plants, etc.. And then beyond that is your second zone, which goes from 30 feet to 100 feet. That's just a reduced area. So we recommend folks, whether you have a small lot or a large lot that in that second zone, it doesn't mean clear cutting. It just means reducing the amount of fuels there. Really what you're looking at is a separation, a horizontal separation from, say, shrub to shrub, and then obviously a vertical separation from your ground fuels like your shrubs and bushes to what we call your ladder fuels, which are your trees. We want to keep fire on the ground and not allow it to get up into the canopy. So we do that by reducing the amount of ground fuels at the base of a tree. And then we do that also by what we call lolly popping or limping up the tree six or eight feet off the ground. Remember, we can never really prevent fire, but what we can do is make an attempt to keep fire on the ground if we want to slow it down and we want to reduce its intensity.
Katie:
So I'm assuming it gets a lot more intense once it makes it up into that canopy.
Craig Wittner:
Absolutely. And of course, folks who live above a fuel source on a hill, you've got a little greater threat. So maybe 100 feet is not enough. Maybe you want to increase that to 150 or 200 feet. Again, it does not mean clear cutting. It means reducing the available fuels. So I would say the the home ignition zone, that first five feet is the barest that it can possibly be and then up to 30 feet from the home. It's just a reduced area that could be, you know, green ornamentals and landscaped plants and vegetation. And then that last zone up to 100 feet or to the property line, whichever is closer, that's where you want to reduce anything and prevent it from getting into the tree canopy. And for those can be confusing sometimes. Call your local fire agency. We work for the people, whether it's Anderson, Cottonwood City or Redding, Cal Fire. It makes no difference. There's a fire agency that works for everybody. So reach out to your local fire agency or you can get online. There are there's four main players I like to call them in the fire world for information that's available at your fingertips. The first is ready for wildfire. That is a very well put together website by Cal Fire. And it's it's been years and a lot of resources put into it. And that really covers everything. It talks about the home ignition zone. It talks about defensible space, even when to evacuate, what to take, how to be prepared. And then there's NFPA dot org. That's short for the National Fire Protection Association. Again, it very informative site. There's also ready.gov and FEMA. And then, of course, our own information on the city writing website, which also refers to other information on the web. But reach out to your local fire agency. Ask to speak to an inspector or the fire marshal and ask if there's any particular requirements in the area that they live.
Steve:
And, Craig, if if community members have areas that they feel are problematic or want to see address, what's the process for them? Can they request that from the fire department or how does that piece of it work?
Craig Wittner:
So for those that have issues or complaints with vegetation, if they go to the Redding Fire Department website, there's six red buttons on the bottom and one is titled Report that will open up a hazardous vegetation reporting form. It takes about a minute and a half just to give us who you are, where you're at, what the complaint is. And every single one is inspected. Some are more minor in nature, but will still be addressed and some will be priorities which would be addressed sooner rather than later. So that's an easy way to do it. You can also call the rating fire department, but completing that form online is a very easy way to do that. And then we can track our complaints to, you know, one subject I haven't mentioned that we've talked about before is the goats.
Katie:
Yes, the goats.
Steve:
Goats. Everyone loves the goats.
Craig Wittner:
So the goats have been an exceptionally popular program. Other areas in the state have been using goats successfully for fuels reduction for many, many years. So we didn't we just we didn't reinvent the wheel. We just thought, well, why can't we do that here? So we did. And to date, the goats have reduced about 90 acres in the last couple of years of various fuels in areas like I think our first project recently was off of Buenaventura. There was 33 acres there that they munched. Now that's a short term fix that takes care of the light flashy fuels for that particular season that will need to be revisited. But the popularity of the goats, my my biggest benefit, at least in my mind of the goats, is people like the goats. And it starts them discussing it opens the topic of fuels reduction and fire safety. So I think that's a win win.
Steve:
Yeah, absolutely. What is the effectiveness of the Goat Strikeforce compared to kind of your average fire firefighter force?
Craig Wittner:
So costs are relatively comparable. For example, per acre costs are right around $700 an acre to use the goats. But you also have to weigh in availability of other options. For example, contracting with private companies. At least in the last three years, prices have increased significantly because of demand and not to mention they may not be available. Also, the reduction in the amount of sugar pie and cruel crews and the availability of those crews not being available because other large projects, you know, up in single town or elsewhere in the county, they might be an available option. The California Conservation Corps is another option, but it's a little more costly than the goats are. So I think with goats, although you have a fixed price point per acre, the benefit of getting people interested in the topic of fuels reduction and fire safety is overwhelming. So we're going to continue to use the goats.
Katie:
Thanks for listening this week. To ask a question or suggest a future episode, send an email to podcast at City of Redding dot org. Or tweet us at City of Redding.
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