Posted on 11/18/2018 7:59:00 AM PST by Dupin
Just a little advice:
First, put in an underground fire shelter about 20 feet down. There are companies out there which make very good ones from just the smaller shelters up to the kind one can live in for years if they had to and a couple of hundred thousand dollars added on to rebuilding is a small price to pay for the safety and security those things provide. Imagine simply going underground instead of evacuating to wait a fire out in comfort since one can get power generators as part of the deal.
Build a monolithic dome home instead of the more conventional type. Go to Youtube an type "monolithic dome home survives wildfire" in the search and it should take you to a video of one that was the only home in her neighborhood that did. The company the woman bought the kit from did uses a fire-proof form which becomes the outer layer for the home as part of the kit. It may look weird to some and one may take some ribbing from the neighbors , like the woman in the video did when she had hers built, but think about just who is doing the laughing now in her cases.
Think about it.
Those that are rebuilding after tornado or hurricane should also consider a dome home. The curved surface provides a significantly reduced area that high winds are able to push against.
I’m not sure preparing and waiting for another fire is the best answer. I lived in the state from birth to adulthood in the central valley, and we had to handle our share of fires in the Sierras and coastal mountains. And the one thing obvious to the returning of the problem is the ground vegetation.
If the trees burn and are gone, and won’t be back for many years, why do the fires happen every year? Simple, the only fuel available is ground vegetation to include new growth trees. It has time to sprout and grow to do so. So if it is not controlled or removed, then after it goes the only thing left is rebuilt buildings which is our problem, not the forests’. This is how natural back burning accomplishes growth and has for thousands of years until man put up other fuel.
Therefore, since man has to change something in their land takeover, but fails to do so, they continue to be toast. The state or the feds need to control growth if they are going to invade an area. And that means controlled burns and brush clearing which they won’t do because of the ecologists. And they have no idea, or don’t care, what needs to be done to correct their spotted owl or any other problem. They need to weigh in on what’s important.
rwood
#1: Don’t forget that next year’s insurance policy changes might be huge or a complete cancelation.
Once a fire has burned the excess fuel, the area is safe for at least a dozen years.
That's just an excuse, they have an idea alright, they want everyone to live in one of their urban utopias where they can be easily controlled.
Or they could think about forestry management.
You have provided good advice. I would add that people need to do a lot of research to find someone who is not a fly by night scam artist when finding a contractor that does this type of work.
I think that your first sentence could be easily misconstrued. While it may be appropriate depending on location and soil conditions to have the floor of your shelter 20 feet down... in most cases it would add a massive amount of unnecessary expense and complications to try and get the top of your shelter 20 feet down... for very little gain.
There are many books and articles available on this subject. Unfortunately a lot of them were written by people with less than stellar credentials.
ONLY a couple of hundred thousand dollars added to your rebuild???
Has this person ever been outside of his high end gated community?
The valley I live in has not got one single house that cost a couple of hundred thousand to build-—ever.
Insurance companies were already refusing to insure for fire in the California foothills. I lived in the Gold Country foothills on the western slope of the Sierra. I sold & moved out in Dec 2004, but since then, my neighbors there have not been able to get fire insurance without making that a separate policy—like earthquake insurance-—or flood insurance.
We have fire insurance in a fire zone and it went from $900/year to $2600/year after several large close-by fires that destroyed hundreds of homes.
I can only image what it will be if we go through another round of fires.
“Once a fire has burned the excess fuel, the area is safe for at least a dozen years.”
That’s not been my experience.
Go through the Colorado areas that were burned by fires and after about 3 years it is hard to tell there was ever a fire. Sparsely wooded areas show signs after 12 years, but the heavily wooded areas recover very quickly.
“First, put in an underground fire shelter about 20 feet down”
No need for 20 feet. A simple shelter just a few feet under will work just fine. Just get past the root layers where fires burns underground. Probably 4-6 feet in most areas.
Many fire bunkers can cost less than $20k, and some I’ve seen are about $10k, installed.
We don’t have a fire shelter because we have 5 different roads out of here and can vacate quickly.
Uh,don’t..?
> Insurance companies were already refusing to insure for fire in the California foothills. <
Easy solution. California should just pass a law forcing the insurance companies to write those policies. And California should set price controls, too.
(I was going to say ‘just kidding’. But the way California is today, they just might do it.)
What would an underground fire shelter do for an oxygen supply? Just curious.
First of all, what will keep the generator from burning?
Second, there’s a chance that when the fire goes over the oxygen could be sucked out through the air vent.
Not to take issue with your idea, putting a structure underground sounds like a good idea but what about the fresh air needed to live underground? If you’re in the middle of a fire wouldn’t you have to deal with super-heated air? What about smoke? Either would be detrimental to both the inhabitant and also the successful running of any type of power-generating equipment.
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