Igniting Awareness: Fire Season Preparedness 101

Is fire season really starting earlier, or are we misinterpreting changing weather patterns and vegetation growth? In this episode we're tackling this common misconception and providing crucial insights into fire safety during California's fire season, which spans from May to October. We'll break down the essential role of prescribed burns by the US Forest Service and CAL FIRE in managing undergrowth to prevent catastrophic fires. Learn how fire is not just a destructive force but also a vital component of natural ecosystems, aiding in processes like pine cone seed release. We'll also compare the differing fire management approaches between the US Forest Service, which focuses on forest health, and CAL FIRE, which prioritizes protecting watersheds and public lands.

But fire safety doesn't stop in the wild. We've got essential tips for camping and home evacuation that could make all the difference in a crisis. From understanding fire safety rules in high-risk areas like the Sierras to sharing personal stories about the quirks of outdoor cooking, we cover it all. And when it comes to safeguarding your property, discover the importance of creating defensible space, including practical steps like land clearing and tree removal. 

Whether you’re gearing up for a camping trip or preparing your home for the fire season, let us help you stay informed and ready for anything. Tune in for a blend of expert advice, personal anecdotes, and actionable tips that will help you stay safe both in the wilderness and at home.

Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.

Chapters

• 0:29 Fire Safety and Prevention Tips
• 15:57 Safety Tips for Camping and Evacuation
• 23:47 Defensible Space for Fire Safety

Transcript

Jimmy: 0:30

What's happening? I guess we're on a little surprise there. Megan got me.

Megan: 0:36

Jumping right into it.

Jimmy: 0:38

Yeah, what's happening? It's your boy, jimmy, again Commuting to another podcast, life and Safety. I got Meg with me, as usual, and we're going to talk about fire safety today.

Megan: 0:52

Specifically with the fire season coming up.

Jimmy: 0:54

Well, I would say fire season's here.

Megan: 0:57

Yeah, yeah.

Jimmy: 0:59

So that's, you know, let's start there. That's kind of interesting because people are like it's an early fire season. It's not an early fire season. Fire season starts in May and June when summer weather starts to get here, and it goes till October, you know, and I remember 20 years ago having Thanksgiving at the firehouse because it didn't rain, you know. So I don't personally think that fire season has gotten longer or shorter, it's just it is what it is in California, you know. So I kind of wanted to start there.

Jimmy: 1:40

It's a little bit early this season because we had a lot of rain early rain last year, so that season was shortened and then that brought on a lot of growth and, you know, beautiful nature that we all enjoy, with the greenery and stuff like that. Unfortunately, we had all of our rain kind of early and then it didn't really get past february and march, right, I think we had a couple showers in like April and May. That was like pretty torrential downpours. I was like what the heck it was flooding. But like you know, with that change and things like that, it definitely affects the way growth of the vegetation and everything else happens and, with that being said, I don't think there was a lot of chance for a lot of prescribed burns where the fire services go out Usually the Forest Service or CAL FIRE. They go out and they kind of just get the force ready, if you will. So I think that's kind of why we have that perception, I think.

Megan: 2:51

Can you describe the prescribed burns a little bit more Like how does getting it ready? What do you mean by that?

Jimmy: 2:58

Yeah, so prescribed burns are basically kind of how it sounds. The Forest Service and CAL FIRE. They have people that work there. They're called foresters and they're people that just it's a really cool job. They just kind of study the trees and the undergrowth of the forest, that's just. They're foresters and there's land management folks, if you will, and they go out and they look at certain areas and they say, hey, this side it's close to a road or it's close to a campsite, it's close to this draw or this gully and we need to.

Jimmy: 3:37

If we get a fire here, if it starts, it's going to run away and with wind and conditions like that, so they'll go out and they'll find that area, that targeted area, and they'll burn it. And it's really wet, it's cold, maybe there's a fog cover, still, things like that and they just manage it. Now what they're doing is they're burning all the undergrowth, oh so, like your pine needles, the dead branches that have fallen off the trees, things like that and they're also opening up the pine cones Because fun fact, pine cones hold the seeds for pine trees and they don't open unless there's a fire. So pine trees, pine forests, they don't keep growing unless there's a fire, right. So we kind of need that to happen also. Also, the prescribed burns they'll look at trees that need to be burned or cut down and they'll do that. So they'll find old growth or dead trees because of the bark, beetles or other things, infections, what have you? So, yeah, it's kind of what prescribed burn is.

Megan: 4:54

That's really cool, and you mentioned about the pine cones and how fires like pine forests, require fires. I feel like that's an important point to bring up A lot of people. I don't know about a lot of people. There are definitely some people who are like all fires are bad fires unless they're in a fireplace, and I feel like a lot of times it's glossed over that you know there are places where it's meant to burn. Forest fires are meant to be. Now, them getting out of control different story. Or, you know, being started by humans different story.

Jimmy: 5:36

But you know, being started by humans, different story. But you know the world was designed to have some fires. Yeah, absolutely, and that's kind of was one of those really fraternity house jokes between the fire services, especially like cal fire versus like the US Forest Service.

Jimmy: 5:45

The US Forest Service manages fires, whereas CAL FIRE puts fires out Right Now the Forest Service, especially if it's nature, like a lightning strike or something like that. Well, that's usually the only way nature starts fires is lightning strikes. They'll manage that fire. They're not going to put it out, but they're going to manage it. So what I mean by that is they're going to try to keep it in certain areas the best they can. They're not going to let it burn down houses and things like that. It's the best of their ability. The general rule for them is it's kind of like hey, there's interface there, so there's public, we'll try to protect it. But our primary goal is to manage the forest, whereas Cal Fire they're like let's go put it out, it's fire. You know, wet stuff on hot stuff, let's put it out. Fire bad, so to speak.

Jimmy: 6:42

And their goal, the reason why Cal Fire was invented was to protect watershed land. So when trees and vegetation burn and they're next to rivers and stuff like that, there's nothing, there's roots, don't hold the soil there. So then the dirt, you know, flows away when it rains, and then you know the rivers and stuff like that get polluted and messes up farmlands and just drinking water and things like that. And again, I'm talking in super generalities here. So some of you guys are out there in the podcast world. You're listening to this and you're like Jimmy, that's not it, exactly it doesn't.

Megan: 7:16

I get it.

Jimmy: 7:17

I get it. I'm simplifying it. I'm talking generalizations. I'm sorry, I only got 15 minutes. Come on.

Jimmy: 7:25

I usually get paid for this information, so that's kind of at a high level. That's what happens there. Now, as far as fire safety, the best, I guess offense is the best defense, or best defense is the best offense, depending on how you will look at this. Offense is the best defense or best defense is the best offense, depending on how you will look at this. Now, if you're a camper, make sure your fires stay in your camp rings, your fire rings. Don't improvise fire rings. They're usually set up that way for a reason, at fires or at designated sites.

Jimmy: 8:05

I should say that we had a campfire, if you will, for my daughter's birthday not too long ago on the beach, and it's very, very clearly stated that you have to have fires in the fire rings. And where we happened to be at there, there was a really long branch I'll call it that. Somebody drug over that. They'd stuck over the firing and part of it went into the grass, like the little marsh area of the beach, and I used that opportunity. Well, first off, I was with a bunch of 15 to 17-year-old, 18-year-old young ladies, females and two boys, and the boys were like look at the fire, we should try to burn that branch too. We should finish it.

Megan: 9:03

And I was like no.

Jimmy: 9:05

If it starts to catch on fire it's going to go burn that up and that's going to get the house and they're like. That's why it has to stay contained. So as an example, keep that one there. Now, if you're out camping in the woods in the wilderness and if you don't put your fires out, a little bit of a breeze can push that ember out. You're not going to have defensible space, usually in campsites, if the fire embers go out of the ring, there's usually dirt around it.

Jimmy: 9:36

If you ever camp you ever been in anything like that a campsite doesn't need a campsite. You'll notice there's not a lot of pine needles, not of just garbage or dead growth on the ground. Because of that, like embers, if they pop out of there, things like that, they don't start a fire, whereas if you're in the wilderness you clear out a little space, you put a couple of rocks around it, maybe you start a fire. That fire doesn't go out, it starts to spread and that's how. A lot of fires and I believe I heard and I might be wrong on this, so all good if somebody fact checks me on this one, but I believe the fire that's burning north of Lake Tahoe right now started because of a campfire and I would have bet my paycheck that that's exactly what happened.

Jimmy: 10:26

The person didn't ring it, didn't put it out, right. You know things like that. So when I say that, people always ask me a question in one second, I actually might answer this right now. So how do you put out a fire, a campfire? Dirt, so try to cool it off first. If you're going to camp, especially if you're car camping, have some water, extra water with you. Pour it onto it, mix it up a little bit with a shovel. More water it's going to steam, it's going to smoke, it's going to be all dirty. Throw a little bit of dirt on it. If you're at the beach, throw some sand on it, right, and that'll put it out. At least. Keep it under control. And you don't want to wait, walk away from it. If you're camping outside of a campsite, don't walk away from it. You can still feel heat. If you could feel heat, it could reignite. So cool it off. Cool it off, cool it off go ahead.

Megan: 11:22

Meg well, um feel heat. What do you mean by that? Like if you get your hand like right up close to it heat, or like standing, you know, two feet away, heat.

Jimmy: 11:33

Well, hopefully, if you're standing two feet away and you can feel it, you're not putting the fire out.

Megan: 11:37

That's true.

Jimmy: 11:38

Something else is going on there. If you can get your hand close, like you're taking a temperature of somebody, a loved one's temperature, it's probably too still, too warm to walk away from. Okay, all right, don't touch the fire. I want to be very adamant about that. Don't touch the fire. Don't touch hot things that's a that's a good clarification right but you know, get your hand and if you can feel the heat, don't walk away from it.

Megan: 12:12

I remember, growing up, some of my family was in Santa Cruz, but for the most part I lived in San Jose. So we would drive Highway 17 a lot. And you know, halfway or so there maybe not, I have no concept of distance but there's that little plaque with the Smokey the Bear and it says you know, fire danger high today or low today. I remember growing up, you know, when I was younger, there were a little bit more of the greens, the lows, and then it started to be almost always orange or red. And you know, eventually it got to the point where I was just like, oh, it's always fire danger high. And then, you know, I just kind of put it on my mind oh, it's always high fire danger. But what exactly does fire danger mean in that sense?

Jimmy: 13:00

Yeah, that's a good question.

Megan: 13:02

And what like choices should I make, knowing that it's a high fire danger? How should I change my behavior?

Jimmy: 13:10

So high fire danger. The way that works is One how hot has it been, how dry has it been? And then what are the fuels? How dry are they? So twigs, grass, things like that, if they're really dry, really easily ignitable things, then it usually gets higher fire danger. So the drier the grass, drier twigs, things like that, the higher it becomes. There's a little bit more to that, but at a high level, generally speaking, when it's low, it's usually cold, wet, damp, not a lot of wind. Another thing with the high fire danger is it might be cool weather but we might have had lots of heat and lots of dry weather like what we're having right now. We're having this ugly, ugly heat wave right now for us in the bay area side note we're recording this in mid-july right it's going to be released later.

Jimmy: 14:11

But yeah, for your frame of reference so for anything over 90 degrees is ugly heat, you know.

Megan: 14:20

Right, californians can't handle high temperature speeds.

Jimmy: 14:24

Northern Californians can't handle it right, Good clarification.

Megan: 14:28

Right, Southern California.

Jimmy: 14:29

people are like man that happens all the time here, right? No, but us Northern Californian folks, bay Area folks, we're babies.

Megan: 14:35

We're babies Because we have the best weather.

Jimmy: 14:38

It's almost always 65 to 80. Anything over 85, we melt. We hate it.

Megan: 14:44

And anything under 60, we're freezing.

Jimmy: 14:46

Yeah, we have sweatshirts on we're nice and spoiled here.

Jimmy: 14:50

So, with that being said, we've been having winds, especially in the afternoons. In the mornings we get those winds going. So if we have a little tiny spark of fire, it's in that dry brush with the wind. It's going to take off on us pretty quick and that's kind of how that fire danger thing happens. So now, how do you change your life? It's not a big deal, unless you're smoking or you know things like that. So what I mean by that is, if you're smoking and you're throwing your matches outside, don't do that. That's going to potentially start a fire. Cigarettes don't start that many fires, believe it or not. Usually roadside fires. There are usually Cadillac converters exploding, especially multiple. They shoot up these little honeycombs looking things and they'll have multiple of the road. Um yeah, so smokers kind of get a bad rap. It does happen. It does happen.

Megan: 15:51

It's just not as often as people think yeah, I totally would have thought that that was a.

Jimmy: 15:56

No. So if you are camping high fire danger areas, make sure you understand that campfire, the rules for that area. So I know like right now in the Sierras there's no open flame because of the fire danger. So what that means is you cannot have a campfire. Or, in general speaking, some campsites are different. Generally speaking, you can't have open flame and you can only cook on like propane stoves, things like that. You can't cook over open fire. I know where I grew up in Lake Tahoe. Right now you can only have gas barbecues going right now and I believe you can have a fire pit as long as it's in a designated area and the flames can't be higher than like two feet or something like that. I don't know who's going to measure those, but you know something like that. I saw that the other day on Instagram. I think it's just kind of funny. Who measures two feet of flame?

Megan: 17:06

Personally speaking, I love it when the flames are really low, because that's the best for roasting marshmallows. Because I don't like burned marshmallows, I toast them.

Jimmy: 17:14

You like that golden marshmallow?

Megan: 17:15

Golden and the gooey center. You can't burn it with a big old flame. You like that golden marshmallow, golden and the gooey center? You can't, you know, burn it with a big old flame. You gotta just lightly turn it.

Jimmy: 17:22

Yeah.

Megan: 17:23

Long time low and slow.

Jimmy: 17:24

I like it. I like it Fun fact Jimmy actually does not like marshmallows.

Megan: 17:31

I remember you telling me that and I think I blocked it out of my brain because it's just so.

Jimmy: 17:36

Random and odd Right. I blocked it out of my brain because it's just so random and odd and rude.

Megan: 17:39

I feel like as a firefighter you're like, you have to like, Like s'mores and stuff like that and another fun fact, since I'm allergic to cinnamon.

Jimmy: 17:47

A lot of graham crackers have cinnamon, so I don't eat cinnamon either. So, yeah, yeah, and before I found out I was allergic to cinnamon one of our favorite things to do we actually found this out on a Halloween night hike out in the Santa Cruz Mountains A really fun family event. We actually roasted apples, huh. And then they actually the folks that organized it at the campsite actually had sugar and cinnamon and brown sugar in like a mixture and you heated up the apple, you roasted the outside of the apple and then you rolled the apple into that cinnamon sugar mix and caramelized on the apple.

Megan: 18:26

It was so good, that sounds great like was it a whole apple whole apple, whole apple I'm gonna have to try that. That sounds delicious, so good roasted apples, Roasted apples, Try it Now.

Jimmy: 18:38

Fun fact go back to fire safety. A couple of the kids figured out they can light the apple on fire eventually.

Jimmy: 18:45

And that became a pretty good fireball, whereas a marshmallow you can fling it off your stick if it lights on fire, and that'll make a goopy mess and the sugar content in the marshmallow will kind of burn off and it's just kind of bleh. What happened, though, was the apples were so hot and they were like a little fireball when they were flipping them off of the sticks. They're actually starting like little sparks, like little, like roly fires, and it was kind of crazy, and I was like like oh, that could actually start a fire, and the the folks, the organizers of the event, were like absolutely stopped doing that, yelled at the parents and yelled at the kids. Pretty good, at first it was a little. I thought that was a little harsh. That's way harsh, ty. But then I, uh, making eye contact with them, make it like say, do you like that little clueless lock in there right there? So, yeah, it was pretty fun, but then, after I thought about it, I was like no, that was actually probably pretty appropriate. Those kids could have started this whole forest on fire.

Jimmy: 19:52

Now, fire safety at home.

Jimmy: 19:53

Like what do you do if there's a forest fire, if you know there's a forest fire that started in the area, things like that, or you live in a fire danger area, you're in the forest, have your things packed in a case like a little plastic case or a metal case, be ready to go, and that way you can just kind of grab your. What I mean by stuff is your important documents birth certificates, wedding certificates, your bank documents, whatever you think you need for that stuff home insurance policies, those kinds of things, pictures of your family members always a good thing and deeds and things like that are very important stuff because when you go to go back in after the fire's passed the sheriff, highway patrol, whoever's there you're going to ask you for a lot of those things to make sure you do that so they don't think you're a looter. Um, have obviously have your clothes packed and things like that. Like just you, you know a couple of day pack um that you're going to have to go survive out of if you have to.

Megan: 21:01

Um, as a pet owner one that I've seen also is like if you have um specifically like cats or small animals that need to be in carriers, like have the carriers ready to go? Like near the door? Like I keep my cat carriers in the hall closet by the front door just so that if I need to get my cats really fast, I know exactly where they are and they're right there to you know, throw the cats in and run. Yeah, like a good um. Like we also have a little pet safety or backpack sort of thing with um, like a to-go litter box and like a half bag of litter and then enough food for like two days and some water for them, just so that if we have to run somewhere with them not that it's a fire, because that's probably unlikely where we live, but you know, you never know you never know if you have to leave with them quick, it's good to have you know stuff for them prepped I think that's right, that's good stuff.

Jimmy: 21:51

Um, I don't never mind. I'm saying I don't like my cat that much but my family does, so I'm not going to go there.

Megan: 22:03

But that's a good idea.

Jimmy: 22:05

It's a good idea Now evacuate. Not to evacuate, it's always a personal choice. I'm not going to tell people to leave their houses If they don't feel like they need to, but I strongly suggest it. At the end of the day, your house can be rebuilt. You cannot. Your family can look at the house. It's devastating and it's. I'm not saying anything that I guess. What I'm trying to say is the house is always replaceable. You are not. Your family wants you there and it's always going to want you there, and we can rebuild the house. We can remake memories, right. So if they tell you to evacuate, do the best for you and your family, but I strongly suggest you do evacuate.

Jimmy: 23:03

Um, I've been on fires where people evacuated and people didn't evacuate, and when you don't evacuate, it puts a lot of stress on the, on the guys that are in, the gals that are there. Uh, that's just when we're out of pressure, right. Um, and it's looking back. Some of my worst memories weren't actually the things I saw or the trauma I saw. It was dealing with those people and, um, and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was pretty gnarly, pretty gnarly. So do what's best for you and your family, but I highly recommend you evacuate.

Jimmy: 23:47

Yeah, yeah, and if you do live in those areas, a good thing to always do is make sure you have your defensible space. Look that up for your area. Clearing land, you know, clearing trees away from your house. To always do is make sure you have your defensible space. Look that up for your area uh, clearing land, you know, clearing trees away from your house, making it defensible. I've been on lots of fires where we've been able to protect houses because it had clear areas around it that we can defend it, and we've been on I've been on fires. It was like, literally, my fire captain said we can't save this house, go to the next one, and that's not a good feeling. No, so you know. So, defensible space Look it up. Firecagov that's Cal Fire's website, local jurisdictions Look into it. Do a quick Google search for your area for any pertinent fire safety, fire regulations where you're going camping, where you're living and all that, and be safe out there. Folks, thanks for listening to the Life and Safety Podcast and we'll talk to you soon, later.