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Small Cabin Forum / Off Topic / Wildfires Threaten Nearly One Third of U.S Residents and Buildings
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ICC
Member
# Posted: 3 Jun 2024 20:16
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New Scientific American article

...several links in that article to other items of interest.

ICC
Member
# Posted: 3 Jun 2024 21:14 - Edited by: ICC
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Ooops. Sorry I forgot that SA requires a subscription to read most of their articles.

One can get 60 days for $1, but must remember to cancel or a yearly subscription will start after 60 days.

In brief summary, the Forest Service and other agencies have reassessed what the current maps show and they are now all out of date. Seriously out of date.

Areas known as "wildland-urban interface" have also experienced a population boom. "Between 1990 and 2020, those areas expanded by a whopping 30 percent — or 179,000 square kilometers — according to the Forest Service, with 2.6 million new homes built between 2010 and 2020 alone."

Fuels may have stayed more or less the same in some areas, but there are more people at risk.

DaveBell
Moderator
# Posted: 4 Jun 2024 01:28
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I don't know why they don't do more controlled burns. On a day with no wind, take the tanker trucks, with lawn chairs and a cooler of beer and go burn a few acres. A few acres each weekend and after awhile, you'll have a nice fire break.

ICC
Member
# Posted: 4 Jun 2024 01:47
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Well, the term "controlled burn" can very quickly become an out of control burn. In the last 20 years three fires that have been the biggest wildfires in NM history were results of "prescribed burns". That is the present day term that more properly describes what they do. Similar to prescribed medical drugs or procedures, things do not always go as planned. But, that critique aside, we need to try to do things to fix the problems a 100 years of suppressing every wildfire and changing climate have brought us.

gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 4 Jun 2024 02:36
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They do prescribed burns here....Ive noticed some have been on days there should never have been a fire started. But it had been scheduled so they did anyway.
Makes me wonder.....

ICC
Member
# Posted: 4 Jun 2024 04:09
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Quoting: gcrank1
Makes me wonder


Yep. Me too. The real killer on these burns that go wrong is the combination of winds and dry fuel load. The fire that almost got my cabin s few years ago was not prescribed, but was a result of careless post-burn followup by the FS from burning slash 6 weeks prior. 60 mph winds rekindled it and it was a raging inferno in no time flat and covered the the 1.2 miles to my cabin very quickly. The quirky winds and the fire wise clearing close to the cabin was our salvation.

It would be great if they could do more thinning with mastication plus winter time slash burning. None of this springtime burning which is when the winds here are at their unpredictable worst.

But I rant too much..... 'nite

gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 4 Jun 2024 11:12
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I forgot to add last night that the past couple years when we couldn't get a burning permit or even do a bonfire due to high fire danger conditions there were some p-burns

Brettny
Member
# Posted: 4 Jun 2024 14:58
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Not much burns here in the green northeast.

ICC
Member
# Posted: 9 Jun 2024 01:42 - Edited by: ICC
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Most of the trees in this shot are dead; toasted, burnt, and many logged and either milled into lumber or made into pellet fuel. Picture taken this evening to the east of my cabin. Peaceful warm, but already coolong off at 8900 foot elevation. (Trees that were not cut are on forest service land.)
East
East


KinAlberta
Member
# Posted: 12 Jun 2024 00:55
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If i were to renovate I’d use metal roofing and metal or hardiboard siding plus add metal shutters. Then mount wildfire sprinklers on the roof.

Also follow the basic “FireSmart” yard / landscaping advice.

drb777
Member
# Posted: 24 Jun 2024 19:03
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On 3-20-24 my adjoining neighbor had to burn some brush, didn't keep a careful watch and it spread onto my acreage. It ended up scorching 55 of my 80 acres. Fortunately, 4 local fire departments kept it away from my buildings. I've retained an attorney, but not too sure how we'll establish a valuation on damages.
fire damage
fire damage


jsahara24
Member
# Posted: 24 Jun 2024 19:23
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That sucks, sorry to hear that.....

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