Fire prevention program to eliminate 'guesswork'

Community Resilience Coordinator Charlie Landsman is leading the project in Klickitat County. Through the signup page online at www.wildfireready.dnr.wa.gov, landowners can request someone from Landsman’s team to stop by and provide a free evaluation of the property, with a close eye for how well protected your property is from wildfire.

Landsman says wildfire mitigation is most effective when an entire community takes steps to ensure the safety of its inhabitants and structures. But one of the things he most commonly hears from people is that they are unsure of what specific steps to take.

“One of the big things when it comes to fire is: fire doesn’t particularly care about boundaries,” Landsman said. “So it’s really important to get as many people as possible focus on this.”

Speaking with community members in the Gorge, Landsman said he was hard-pressed to find people who didn’t express some level of concern about the danger of wildfire — so having this common foe can be a way to unite a group of people to work together, he said.

To help move people in the right direction, the program is offering free consultations with a wildfire expert, because as Landsman said, one of the biggest challenges is understanding what specific tasks are needed on the property. There are many ways of preventing the loss of a structure, but a mitigation regime won’t be the same for every property. That’s why it’s so important to have a professional evaluate your property and create a custom checklist of recommended mitigation tasks.

Landsman recommends property owners take a close look at what is in a 100- foot perimeter around your house, which is called the defensible zone, and identify fuels in the area. Generally, mitigation would look like clearing fuels, such as brush and bramble, and separating them so there is not a clear path. That goes for vertical paths too; landowners should consider what ways fire can climb in and around your property, he said.

“When we look at these large wildfires, as humans, we see these massive flames, and we just feel powerless in some ways. But we really are capable of taking the steps in that 100 feet around our homes, as well as making sure that the structure itself is resistant to ember ignitions,” he said. “That is going to significantly stack the hand in your favor for the survivability of that structure.”

Department of Natural Resources has begun rolling the program out in a few select places around the state, including Klickitat County. To see if your property is eligible for a free evaluation, visit wildfireready.dnr.wa.gov.