housefire

August 15, 2001

How can you defend your home against wildfire?

Home burns after wind squall blows tree into hot wire on West Chewuch

By John Hanron

A Winthrop family escaped injury Sunday night (Aug. 12) when a wildfire closed in on them while they were eating dinner.

"We didn’t have time to do anything," said an emotionally drained Elena Pors on Monday. "We were having dinner. I smelled fire. The flames were coming down the hill. All we could do is run to our car with nothing. The flames were on both sides of the driveway."

Elena and her husband, Tom, along with their 10-year-old son, Alexis, escaped from their home on the west bank of the Chewuch River less than a mile outside of Winthrop. Their house is at the bottom of a hill on a dead-end drive. They could not see the blaze that had started in the dry pasture above them just minutes earlier when a strong blast of wind blew a 40-foot pine tree onto an electrical line.

By the time the still-blowing squall had pushed the flames to the edge of the hill and into view, ponderosa pines were erupting into flames in their branches.

"The flames were huge," Pors said. "We just had to run for our lives."

The family didn’t even have time to gather their canary, which was hanging in a cage on the porch, or their two standard poodles.

The dogs, however, ran to a nearby pond, where they took shelter as the blaze charred about 10 acres of brush, grass and pine stands. They returned to the home and were taken to safety by local firefighters, who found someone to care for them until they could be returned.

Firefighters were also able to save the bird from the porch.

Pors said when the family fled the house, which has stood on the site since the late-1800s, the building was not on fire. But two small sheds and a four-car garage/workshop were burning close to the home.

As the Pors were pulling out, the first fire trucks were pulling in.

The Winthrop and Twisp fire departments were first called at about 8:45 p.m. to a small blaze off State Road 20 a mile or so west of Winthrop, which also started by a tree falling across a powerline from the same wind squall. When the Chewuch fire was called in minutes later, however, crews quickly turned most of their resources toward it since there were dozens of homes nearby on both sides of the river. A Forest Service crew contained the first fire and soon extinguished it.

As local crews arrived at the Chewuch blaze, the intensity of the burn coupled with the proximity to dozens of homes led Winthrop Fire Chief Don Waller to quickly ask for all the help he could get. Additional firefighters were called in from Mazama, Carlton, Methow, Pateros, Brewster, Malott, Omak, Tonasket, the Forest Service and the state Department of Natural Resources.

Okanogan County Electric Cooperative manager Roger Meader said the intense response to the fire helped keep it from getting more out of hand.

Homes in the Cy Maugham subdivision, just across the river to the east, were notified and a voluntary evacuation was initiated. Many residents stayed to watch the flames and keep the water running onto their yards. Though some very small spot fires were started on the opposite bank from falling embers, the fire was contained on its east flank by the river.

Though the Pors’ house had a significant irrigated green space around it, it was not enough to thwart the huge flames from the outbuildings and the nearby trees. The home was gutted by the inferno.

Both the West Chewuch Road and the East Chewuch Road were closed after congestion from curious onlookers began to hamper emergency vehicles from moving efficiently on both sides of the river.

Waller said his crews finally went home at about 3:30 a.m. Others stayed on the smoldering hillside into the next day and were still mopping up Monday afternoon.

Lightning Sunday night and Monday morning set off a number of fires in the region, including the 4,000-acre Brewster Complex and the 10,000-acre Virginia Lakes Complex on the Colville Reservation . Other fires are burning near Leavenworth, Windy Pass and Lake Wenatchee.

How can you defend your home against wildfire?

By Sue Davie

Last month, as residents on Libby Creek and Gold Creek watched flames creeping closer each day, firefighters traveled up and down the roads designating various homes as either "defendable" or "not defendable."

Owners of undefendable homes were told if the fires came to their house, firefighters would not stay to fight it.

Defensible space is a vegetation buffer that surrounds your home to reduce the chances of a fire reaching it. Creating defensible space requires you to landscape in zones around your house, and reduce piles of debris.

Some plants have fire retardant characteristics, such as little or no seasonal accumulation of dead vegetation, open and loose branching, nonresinous woody material (for example, avoid conifers), low volume of vegetation, high moisture content, drought tolerance and slow growth.

A home should be surrounded by 100 to 150 feet (more on steep slopes and windswept exposures) of landscaping, which involves three different zones of defense.

Zone 1, closest to the house, needs to be moist and trim. Low-growing, fire-resistant plants resist catching fire and provide little fuel. Turf, groundcovers, perennials and annuals form a greenbelt that is regularly watered and maintained to eliminate dry plant litter. A few suggestions are day lilies, irises and yarrow. This zone may contain occasional individual shrubs and trees located at least 10 feet from the house.

Zone 2 should contain slow-growing, drought-tolerant shrubs and groundcovers that keep fire near ground level. Native vegetation can be retained here if it is low-growing and does not accumulate dry, flammable material. Some suggestions include bearberry, currant, holly, serviceberry, snowberry and sumac.

Zone 3 can include native trees which are thinned, with dry debris kept cleared, and can include black locust, mountain ash, honey locust, oak and walnut.

A conversation with plant and nursery experts in the area can add helpful guidance to landscape planning.

For more information, contact the Forest Service, or call the Department of Natural Resources at 1-888-783-9548 and request the Backyard Stewardship Kit.

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