PREPARING FOR YOUR NEXT URBAN INTERFACE FIRE

摘要

The rodeo fire in arizona burned more than 430 structures this summer, and the Hayman Fire in Colorado more than 130 structures―the fires keep coming and the houses keep burning. My overhead team just came off a little 9,000-acre fire in eastern California that required us to protect more than 200 structures for two days. By the time you read this, the fire season will be over, and I imagine the total of structures lost to wildfires in the United States will number in the thousands. It appears that the residents in our country are dead set on their homes looking natural, so they shouldn't complain when their homes "burn natural." With all these wildfires burning, the wildfire suppression agencies are overwhelmed. So, who steps in to help? The municipal fire department with its chrome plug buggies of structural fire fame. Departments all over the country step out of their comfort zone and send municipal engines to work on wildfires burning in and around homes. At the 9,000-acre fire I mentioned above, 45 municipal engines were involved. As an incident commander of an overhead team that deals with major wildfires, I see these departments step up every time, but we still have a weakness in the system.