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¶ … fuels management in urban areas that might be affected by wildfire. Specifically, it will discuss the education of homeowners, and fuel management techniques that can reduce the risk of loss of property during a wildland fire.
With the proliferation of urban areas encroaching on wilderness areas, wildfire now is a much more common threat to homes and property. "Since 1970, more than 10,000 homes and 20,000 other structures and facilities have been lost to severe wildland fire" (Editors). Drought throughout the country has dried out forests, making them much more susceptible to wildfire. Wildland fires can be caused by any number of events, some natural, and some man-made.
Lightning is a common source of fire in natural vegetation. It is a weather phenomenon that is associated with both frontal and convectional movements of air. Lightning fire depends on the presence of dry organic materials, either in dry climates or in dry seasons (Heady and Child 108).
WILDLAND FIRE DEFENSE FOR HOMEOWNERS
Homeowners must be educated in wildland fire safety to help ensure their property is at less risk during a wildfire. "The principal link between social and biophysical systems is not geographic, he said, but functional, and it consists of how people use natural resources" (Backes 149). Recently, the Structure Ignition Assessment Model (SIAM) has been...
"The SIAM uses an analytical modeling approach to account for variables such as type of structure, terrain, fuel and local weather patterns to give homeowners a sense of the risk they face and possible ways of protection" (Ewert, Chavez and Magill 10). The authors go on to say, "Reduced to its simplest terms, the wildland-urban interface fire problem is a result of fire-prone homes, other structures, and facilities built and maintained in a manner that leaves them -- and their occupants or users -vulnerable to wildfire" (Ewert, Chavez and Magill 354)
There are numerous measures homeowners can use to protect their property, beginning with removing vegetation in a radius around the house. This creates a defensible space around the home. The actual defensible space needed depends on the slope and terrain surrounding the home, and can be calculated at this web site: http://www.extension.unr.edu/fire/creating.html. Ifthere is dense forest surrounding the home, it should be thinned to allow space between trees and shrub growth, so the fire does not have dense fuel. Any dead grasses or undergrowth should be cut down and removed. "Locate firewood and other combustible debris (wood scraps, grass clippings, leaf piles, etc.) at least 30 feet uphill from the house" (Living With Fire).
Homes and roofs should be constructed…
Bibliography
Ahern, Jack, and Jestena Boughton. "Wildflower Meadows as Sustainable Landscapes." The Ecological City: Preserving and Restoring Urban Biodiversity. Eds. Rutherford H. Platt, Rowan A. Rowntree, and Pamela C. Muick. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994. 172-185.
Author not Available. "Creating a Defensible Space: A Step-by-Step Guide." Living With Fire. 2002. http://www.extension.unr.edu/fire/frontpage.html
Backes, David. "The Biosocial Perspective and Environmental Communication Research." Journal of Communication, 45.3 (1995): 147-163.
Clark, Lee, and Hardy, Kathryn D. "1996 Alaskan Wildland-Urban Interface Fire -- A Catalyst For Public Involvement." Fire Management Notes. Volume 57, No. 4, 1997. http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/planning/fmt/fmt-pdfs/fmn57-4.pdf
Editors. "Firewise Communities." FIREWISE.org. 2002. http://www.firewise.org/communities/downloads.html
Fire Safety Management The purpose of this paper is to explore several key concepts related to Fire Safety Management. Specifically this paper aims to explore the following concepts in greater detail: Fire protection/suppression systems, Building Construction and Exit Drill in the Home (EDITH) and other Home Safety Programs. Fire technology has expanded in recent years, providing for important fire safety management components. This includes construction of more fire retardant buildings and implementation
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency United States Fire Administration (1996), "Emergency medical services respond to urgent situations that are related to the health and welfare of the community's citizens. Emergency management services protect the community from the effects of natural disasters. Rescue teams safely remove citizens from dangerous predicaments, avoiding the risk of injury or death that untrained, unprepared citizens might face if they tried to perform
In 1954 the first settlements were created using H-shaped blocks (Chan, 1998). Today, however, building block styles include Double H-shaped, Cruciform, Twin Tower, Trident, and Linear (Wong & Yau, 1999). These are designed to be easily constructed and work well for heating and cooling, but they are also designed to prevent a total building collapse in case of a fire. Re-engineering a process that needs some assistance has become
Many foresters supported Pinchot's policies along with pulp, timber and paper companies, and in fact the U.S. Forest Service (commanded by Chief Forester Henry Graves) adopted "fire control" as the "principle duty of the agency" (Fowler). However there was plenty of opposition to Pinchot's strategy of suppressing fires, both from state and federal agencies that supported "light burning" and "Indian fires" policies. By 1910, Fowler writes in the Forest
Incident Management System From the onset, it is important to note that in all hazardous materials incidents, an incident management system must be utilized (Corbett, 2009). This is essentially a federal law mandate. From a general perspective, an incident management system could be defined as all the attempts to not only understand but also respond to emergency scenarios via the application of various procedures, and utilization of the relevant personnel and
Fire Behavior Annotated Bibliography Deng, Tzu-Jeng, Charng-Horng Hsieh, Her-Jiun Sheu, Chyan Yang. (2001) A conceptual framework for improving fire-fighting service quality of a public fire department. Includes results of a study on improving fire-fighting services by improving fire fighting and recognition techniques. Good for those interested in other than wildland fires, and those interested in going into fire management. International Journal of Public Administration, Vol. 24, 405. Drysdale, Dougal. (1999, October). An introduction to fire