Mitigation responsibilities
Introduction
Many Southwestern communities of the United States are facing a very serious and also a growing risk of wildfires. Climatic changes, rising numbers of outdoor recreationists, ecosystem and climatic changes, rapid growth of the population and development in the wildland urban interface area are increasing the risks of wildfires and their impacts. The communities from rural area often have limited resources to deal with unforeseen severe wildfires. They have no structural fire protection and are ignorant of this status of wildfires. The local rural fire protection agencies, federal and the state are very much struggling to keep up with the cost and threats of wildfires as the extent of wildfire protection responsibilities are continuing to grow large every day. It has been said that fire is a process of natural ecological. The forest Southwest of United State had historically been characterized by frequent but low fire intensities. In the recent times, fires in these areas have increasingly become very large and even more severe due to the interactions of land use changes, decades of fire suppression, declining forest health, climate and flammable fuel buildups.
The increasing cost of wildfires
Wildfires have continued to threaten the most important values of human beings which include homes, fish and wildlife habitat, natural resource, community infrastructure, public safety and health, clean air and soil productivity. It can be very costly to suppress large and severe wildfires especially when wildland protection agencies adjust their structural fire protection tactics and resources to protect structures that are in the path of wildfires. In 2000, it was reported that 122,827 fire cases burned 8.5 million acres of land in the southwestern states while in 2002, there were 73,458 fires and they burned almost 6.9 million acres with suppression costs of federal agency of 1.36 billion dollars in 2000 and 1.66 billion dollars in 2002. These costs are mostly involved in putting off the fires, evacuation, public information and traffic control. Other indirect costs are mostly in the form of dislocation, lost income and property taxes and community destabilization. Wildfires can devastate rural economies that depend on forests for tourism and building of infrastructure.
Property owner responsibility
Protecting ones property and home is ones responsibility. One is not supposed to assume that firefighter will save their property of home in case of a wildfire. As much as firefighters would want to save people, resources to do so may be limited and conditions may make it difficult to reach and protect the homes safely. As a home owner, the factors I would consider when designing or building my home would include the following, location, creating a defensible space around the structure and also use of building materials that are resistive to fire.
I would choose a location that can most probably survive a wildfire and the following would be considered. I will familiarize with the local fire department and identify the fire protection that is available in the area. I will evaluate the building site and choose a site that is away from highly vegetated area and also the most level portion of the land. On my buildings I will avoid natural chimneys as the chimneys could draw flames and heat and also act as natural pathways during a fire. I will provide an easy access for emergency firefighting vehicles such that even the very large emergency vehicles get no hitches when fighting fires. The driveway will be placed on the downhill side or the side that faces the wind as this would result in a good fire break. In making my home easy to find, I will clearly mark the location so that firefighters can locate the home even from the air. Trees will be cut back so that address stands out.
I will reduce the vegetation that surrounds the structures in order to create a defensible space around my houses and the other major structures on my property. This will not be to mean that the landscape will be barren but the vegetation surrounding the structures will be modified to reduce the intensity and the rate at which a wildfire would be advancing. Should a fire occur from the structure, this defensible space will provide room for firefighters to protect the forest from coming into contact with the fire.
The ways the construction of the structures take place also play a big role in determining whether a building is safe from fires. It is for this fact that when putting up my structures, the foundation will be closed with a cement wall, concrete block and also employs the use of materials that are resistive to fires as the foundation is usually the first part of the house that comes in contact with a wildfire. As roofs are the parts of structures that have the largest surface areas which are open to the elements of air sparks from wildfires, they will be made of roofing materials that are difficult to ignite a fire which would include clay tiles, slate or metal. Use of these materials will eliminate the highest danger in wildfires which is combustible roofing.
The walls will entirely be made of fire resistant materials from the ground to the roof. Even though windows are disregarded as fire hazard, they are a serious risk as radiant heat pass through them and this leads to setting fires on curtains and then to the near furniture. I will eliminate this risk by minimizing the number and the size of the windows on the house that would most probably expose the structure to wildfires. Size and material used for windows will also be considered and the most suitable would be the tempered glass or the double pane glasses which are most effective in terms of radiant heat which is a great hazard to structures catching fire.
Community’s emergency manager responsibilities
The responsibility of a community’s emergency manager would be to ensure that structures that are brought up in his region of operation are up to standard in terms of being safe from catching fire easily. The manager should also ensure that the people in his region and the activities carried out are not posing a risk of causing a wildfire. He/she should be able to provide information to the people who want to put up structures on which places that are more prone to the dangers of wild fires and what measures they are to take if they have to put up structures. He/she should always have maps showing the structures in the area and the relationship of those structure and probable wildfires. He/she should be conversant with every part of his region so that in case of emergency, he/she can easily get to the place where the emergency has occurred.
The manager should also make sure that all the places in his region are well accessible and if not so, they should get a way of making roads that makes accessibility by fire fighter vehicle easy. He/she should make sure that there are sufficient fire fighting machines are in sound condition and are always ready to attend to a wildfire emergency. He should also ensure that the staff involved in the firefighting are well trained and are qualified to handle any kind of wildfires. Ignorance is no defense and for this reason, the emergency manager should make sure that all the people from the community of his region are educated on how to conduct themselves in case of wildfires. The community emergency manager should have a rating of the risk of all the homes and communities in the region and the scale that is used to measure the levels of rating.
Causes of wildfires
Records have proved that human activities are most times the cause of a forest fire. About 90% of fires in the forests are caused by human activities. Some of these human activities include clearing of the land by fire or arson which then goes out of control to cause a forest fire. Human negligence is another cause of forest fire where people leave behind sources of fire like cigarettes and campfire in the forest. Other people also burn down grass so that new grass can grow faster and this also leads to forest fires. Another indirect human cause id the global warming and as a result fire ignites itself and this is major cause of forest fires. Sparks from falling organic matter, lightning, volcanic activity and the spontaneous combustion of plant materials are some of the natural causes of fire. Of the natural causes of fire, lightning is the highest influential factor in all regions of the world.
Interactions for wildfire mitigation responsibilities
Interactions of the state the local and federal government with homeowners will occur when developing effective strategies to ensure continuity of the mitigation on wildfire and management of fuels. Determination of the effective use of federal and state grant funds to ascertain long term benefits at the community level will cause an interaction between the local, state and federal government with homeowners. In assisting the communities with planning for the wildfire, the state must provide a risk assessment that will provide new chains and links for federal programs to be effective on wild fire hazard mitigation at the community level. There must be assistance from the state for locals who seek funds to implement projects and insurance incentives to form a cohesive effort and encourage communities from areas prone to wildfires to assume bigger responsibilities in order to reduce the wildfire hazards.
References
Protecting Your Home From Wildfire Damage. (2010, March). Alliance for Safe Homes , 5.
Service, U. F. (2003). Influence of Forest Structure on Wildfire Behavior and the Severity of its Effects. Wild fires , 11-19.
