The Survival Guide › Wildfire
🔥Wildfire
Houses in a wildfire mostly do not catch from a wall of flame. They catch from embers, hours ahead of it.
What actually kills people. Wind-driven embers travel a mile or more in front of a fire and land in gutters, on decks, under eaves and in vents. Most homes lost in a wildfire are ignited by those, not by the fire front arriving. It is also why leaving early matters more than any single preparation: the roads close before the fire gets there.
Before
- Clear five feet of anything burnable away from the walls — bark mulch, woodpiles, the plastic bin, the doormat.
- Get the leaves out of the gutters and off the roof, and screen the vents with fine metal mesh.
- Keep a go-bag by the door in season, and back the car in so you can leave without a three-point turn.
- Agree a meeting point and an out-of-area contact. Local lines fail first.
- Photograph the house and its contents while it is standing.
During
- Leave when you are told, or before. People die in cars on blocked roads, not in houses they left too early.
- Close every window and door, and interior doors too, but leave them unlocked for firefighters.
- Move furniture to the middle of rooms, away from windows.
- Turn on outside lights so the house is visible through smoke.
- If you are caught in the open, look for a road cut, a ditch, anything already burnt — and stay low.
After
- Do not go back until officials open the area. Stumps and roots burn underground for days.
- Wear an N95 or better. Ash carries what the buildings were made of, which in older houses can include asbestos.
- Check the roof and the attic for embers before you go to bed on the first night home.
- Watch the slopes above you when the rain comes. Burnt ground sheds water instead of absorbing it, and debris flows follow fires.
The thing people get wrong
“I will hose the roof down and defend the house.”
Mains pressure usually fails during a wildfire, smoke makes it impossible to see or breathe, and radiant heat can ignite clothing well before flames arrive. Fire services are consistent on this: decide early whether you are leaving, and if you are, leave early.
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Sources: National Weather Service, FEMA, CDC and CPSC. Informational only, and no substitute for what your local emergency services tell you on the day — when officials say go, go.