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moregon
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# Posted: 2 Sep 2014 10:33
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A huge forest fire is happening right now in SE Oregon. My property is in that exact region. 200 acres are gone 
Anyone near that?
Which leads to the question.....How are you protecting your cabins when living so close to or actually in the forest?
~Monique
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Gary O
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# Posted: 2 Sep 2014 11:49
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not readily seeing it in the local news, what county?
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 2 Sep 2014 11:59
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Moregon, loads of fires around my area too. I survived another fire season. Seems every year, I get nervous. Clear away from cabin, install gravel, use cement board for enclosed soffits, cement siding also, and metal roof.
Keep debris cleared from cabin, pines shed needles in August, rake those back. On all surrounding trees, cut al branches off up to the 10 foot mark, thin out smaller cluster of trees. Clear out dead wood, set in pile, burn when its safe (winter, covered under plastic etc)
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 2 Sep 2014 12:01 - Edited by: toyota_mdt_tech
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Moregon, good website for fires, go to:
http://www.nwccweb.us/information/firemap.aspx
I see 3 fires in your area, "lost hubcap, bald sisters and south fork complex", which on is near you? Look and zom in on the map, wil show you burned areas, its updates constantly.
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moregon
Member
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# Posted: 2 Sep 2014 13:14
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Thanks guys.......
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cabingal3
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# Posted: 2 Sep 2014 14:50
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oh thank goodness.none too close to us.
thanks for this link
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bldginsp
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# Posted: 3 Sep 2014 21:35
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Monique- contact your local fire dept. and start asking how you can make your property fire safe. Toyota's advice is all good, but the question is, how you gonna cut all those trees and brush? My place is in Nor Cal and in my county there is a Fire Safe Council that uses grant money to do forest thinning on private property. There is probably such a program where you are. There's a lot to learn but it's essential to protect your investment. Good luck.
Right now the local Fire Safe Council has a contractor on my land doing thinning work. Took 5 years to make it happen, but there they are with their chainsaws.
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 3 Sep 2014 22:05 - Edited by: MtnDon
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A great mapping resource that enables one to track fire progress is available from this Forest Service website. This link uses Google Earth to display. So you need Google Earth on your computer. You download a *.kml file to your computer and select open with Google Earth.
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 3 Sep 2014 22:38
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and another link at GeoMac
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SubArcticGuy
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# Posted: 4 Sep 2014 01:41
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We had an epic year up in the NWT for fires...I know one fellow in town lost his cabin and a friend of mine lost his handbuilt offgrid (WAY OFFGRID...250 km by plane or boat) home of almost 30 years and additional outbuildings. Luckily they saved a couple of buildings and will be trying to make a go of it out there this winter anyway.
I was lucky with my cabin...but I am doing a lot more firesmarting yet. I will be bringing a pump, firehose, and sprinklers out next trip to burn some slash piles and to wash debris out from underneath the cabin. I will be putting tin on the cabin in the spring and taking out a lot more trees behind the place. The other big one for me is to get a helipad in place so that the wildland guys can get on the ground quick if they need to sprinkler the place (I am floatplane or helicopter (soon) access only in the fire season.
At last check this season we had 385 fires and burned over 3.3 million hectares (13, 054 square miles!) That is bigger than the entire state of Maryland!
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Malamute
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# Posted: 4 Sep 2014 23:26 - Edited by: Malamute
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Hope you land is OK Monique.
One thing to keep in mind about structures, even with a metal roof, sparks can get in your vents, the soffit, eve or gable vents can suck embers right up into your roof. I believe this is one of the overlooked yet often discovered to be weak points in prevention. Having a way to cover them ready in times of danger might be worthwhile.
There have been fires close to me, but being away from the trees gives a buffer. Trees are very nice to have, but add a dimension of risk. A number of years after selling my land in Az, the area burned, and the guy that bought my land was burned out.
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upndown
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# Posted: 6 Sep 2014 00:17 - Edited by: upndown
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It's been just over a year since we had one of the Deadliest Wildfires in history up at my cabin. 19 Brave Hotshots Died.
The fire was headed right for the cabin, when a sudden change in the wind direction sent it in the direction of Yarnell. An 8,000 acre fire took 19 lives and 127 structures.
Monique, I'm wishing you as well as everyone the best of luck this Fire season!
RIP Yarnell Hill 19
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