WILDLAND FIRES – PLANNING, PLANNING, PLANNING
Perhaps
you may consider a discussion of wildland fires a bit “off topic,” but some
fires don’t start inside our barns, some come to our barns from other sources,
such as forest, brush, or grassland fires, or embers coming from a small
planned fire, or from a fire on a nearby property. Whatever the source,
you have an evacuation situation. The one factor in your favor is that
you may have a considerable amount to time in which to evacuate the occupants
of your barn.
You can help keep
damages to a minimum by creating what wildland firefighters call defensible space. This
is an area, at least thirty feet wide, surrounding any buildings you need to protect
in case firefighters can’t get to your property, or, if they can, they will have
an open area around a building in which to work. A steep slope will allow a
fire to spread more rapidly than it will on flat land, so depending on your topography
(are you on top of a hill, in a valley, on flatland?) you may need more defensible
space around your buildings. Figure on thirty feet as the minimum, though. When
you pace it off you’ll see that you haven’t lost much valuable space considering
the protection it offers. Within the defensible space you must keep the grass
below six inches in height, but your horses (or goats, cows, sheep) can take care
of that for you since you can still use the area for a paddock. If you have
any low-growing plants in the area they should be fire-resistant.
The Importance of Timing
Timing
is important in evacuating from an encroaching wildland fire because you
need to get your animals out before vehicular traffic slows down the process. For
example, if you have four horses to move and only have access to your own
two-horse trailer, you will be moving two of your horses at a time and making
two trips to do it. You need adequate time to move the first two horses,
go back home for the other two horses, and then make the second trip to safety
successfully without being locked in a highway traffic jam of hundreds to
thousands of people evacuating the endangered area.
Not only do
you need enough time, you need to have enough fuel to make both trips without getting
off a highway to refuel. If traffic is beginning to build up, by the time
you refuel, you may risk being stuck in a jam, and that’s time you don’t have—unless,
of course, you began your evacuation at the first word of a threat. Better
to waste the fuel and time and not have had to evacuate at all, then to wait until
the last minute and take your chances on reaching safety for yourself and your
animals.
So, my main
word on wildland fires comes down to this: you’d never forgive yourself if the
two remaining horses in my example were yours and they perished because you didn’t
foresee the traffic problems or realize just how fast a wildland fire can spread.
As a corollary
to evacuation, practice loading your horses in a trailer (different kinds if you
have them available) so they load without hesitation. Plan more than one
escape route, including one on foot in case your planned escape roads become impassable
due to traffic jams, firefighting apparatus, or the fire. If you are transporting
(or in some instances having to turn your horses free to escape weather-related
emergencies), the best ID for your horse is a fetlock band with the horse’s
name, your name, address and phone numbers. A fetlock band is the preferred
method because it won’t get lost, as a halter might. Carry with you proof
of ownership and identification on each horse, including a photo of you and your
horse together. Also, make sure your horses are current on vaccinations (tetanus,
EEE, West Nile, rabies and flu/rhino in case you must evacuate your horses to a
public holding area. Make sure you have with you all medications your horses
take.