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Home My WebLink About11-13-2012 - Supplemental MaterialsWILDFIRE IS COMING. ARE YOU SET? Defensible Space Defensible space is essential to improve your home's chance of surviving a wildfire. It's the buffer you create between a building on your property and the grass, trees, shrubs or any wildland area that surround it. This space is needed to slow or stop the spread of wildfire and it protects your home from catching fire — either from direct flame contact or radiant heat. Defensible space is also important for the protection of the firefighters defending your home. Defensible StrIPCP ? ?r Two zones make up the required 100 feet of defensible space. Zone 1 Zone 1 extends 30 feet* out from buildings, structures, decks, etc. A lot of people kind of felt that they had jumped through hoops for Irene, and this time, they weren't going to do it. And there was just this feeling that the storm was going to be like any other storm that hits the East Coast. It wasn't going to be the Super Storm that had been portrayed - but that's not what happened. Over the course of the next few hours, though, Breezy Point became a literal lightning rod in the storm, battered by winds., rain and fire. At least So homes were destroyed in the beachfront neighborhood and we got caught in the chaos. The last thing anyone imagines is a fire breaking out. But that's exactly what happened. Jim DuBreuil: I remember looking out the window around 8:3o at night, and all of a sudden, we just saw this ... it seemed like we were in a national forest where you see all those fires with timbers flying around. It was off in the distance and at 8:2o at night, I wasn't thinking this is going to affect us. But as each hour progressed, the storm, the fire was just coming closer and closer and God, you [Keturah Gray] looked at me and said, "We're getting the hell out of here," and I was like, "Yeah, let's go." I got a trash can and we threw in garbage bags and all of our camera equipment in it. The family we were with did the same and we were out the door. Keturah Gray: I just remember when I first saw that fire thinking we have water on one side of the house, we have a TON of water on the back side of the house, and we have a fire that is inevitably going to get closer because of all of the winds. I was just like, "What do we do? Where do we even begin? Do we take this route or this route ?" I was so worried about the people that I knew, because we had been down that beach earlier that afternoon. There were a lot of people in that line of fire, and I just didn't know how they were going to get out. Jim DuBreuil: I kind of think where we got lucky was the tide started going down. The water was much higher at 8 o'clock and then by 9 o'clock and io o'clock it was just easier to get around. Where the water would've been up to our chins, the water was finally at our waist. We put on our backpacks and got our trashcan and headed out of there. Keturah Gray: I think I was the first one that was like, we need an escape plan, but I also didn't know if I was going to be strong enough to walk through the water. Jim DuBreuil: Timbers are flying and there's 8o mph winds coming at you as you're going through the waves. You're trying to get through the flood http://gma.yahoo.com/ inside- breezy - point - inferno- flood- 002046120 - -abc- news- topstories.html Inside Breezy Point: An Inferno in a Flood ABC news By ABC News J ABC News — Tue, Oct 30, 2012 8:20 PM EDT REPORTERS' NOTEBOOK By Keturah Gray and Jim Dubreuil When we were sent out on Monday afternoon to report on the "holdouts" of Hurricane Sandy - those who refused to leave their homes despite New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's mandatory evacuation orders - we expected winds and rain, but thought it was nothing that we couldn't handle. We had our bottled water, our rain gear, our chips and were ready to tough out the storm with the citizens of Breezy Point, a beach town in Queens on the far end of New York City, and a place where Jim has family. We were two of the last to arrive over the Marine Parkway Bridge before it closed to the public at 2 p.m. ET, and we joined up pretty quickly with 30- year -old Mary Lepera. She gave us a tour of the neighborhood and explained why she, like so many others, planned to stick out Hurricane Sandy at home: She'd spent her whole life there and wasn't about to abandon her home. We're sticking it out," she said. "Even if we have to go up on our roof, we'll do it." Remove all dead plants, grass and weeds (vegetation). O Remove dead or dry leaves and pine needles from your yard, roof and rain gutters. O Trim trees regularly to keep branches a minimum of 10 feet from other trees. Remove branches that hang over your roof and keep dead branches 10 feet away from your chimney. O Relocate wood piles into Zone 2. Remove or prune flammable plants and shrubs near windows. Remove vegetation and items that could catch fire from around and under decks. O Create a separation between trees, shrubs and items that could catch fire, such as patio furniture, wood piles, swing sets, etc. Zone 2 O Cut or mow annual grass down to a maximum height of 4 inches. Create horizontal spacing between shrubs and trees. (See diagram) Create vertical spacing between grass, shrubs and trees. (See diagram) O Remove fallen leaves, needles, twigs, bark, cones, and small branches. However, they may be permitted to a depth of 3 inches if erosion control is an issue. San Diego County requires 50 feet of clearance in zone 1. Check with your local fire department for any additional defensible space or weed abatement ordinances. Plant and Tree Spacing The spacing between grass, shrubs, and trees is crucial to reduce the spread of wildfires. The spacing needed is determined by the type and size of brush and trees, as well as the slope of the land. For example, a property on a steep slope with larger vegetation requires greater spacing between trees and shrubs than a level property that has small, sparse vegetation. Vertical Spacing Remove all tree branches at least 6 feet from the ground. 4 Allow extra vertical space between shrubs and trees. Lack of vertical space can allow a fire to move from the ground to the brush to the tree tops like a ladder. To determine the proper vertical spacing between shrubs and the lowest branches of trees, use the formula below. MINIMUM VERTICAL CLEARANCE 6 FOOTMINIMUMCLEARANCE 3X HEIGHT OF SHRUBMINIMUMVERTICALCLEARANCE K Eire Tree Code rLLB cfcnsc Pa cc ne Fre defense space zone around the hose1 o s required for fore safety to prevent fire hiippng fr. : rm houses to trees and hoisrs nd pr "pups f houses burnct'd down qutckDy :flke fiirst flres. O w pLb:c hearing ano survey to discuss tree code that acc Er da fire defers mid the haus and on s space z apeso l J, 1 O Potential Rstions may one ude a_Dowon ed na hone owners take o t trees (fre fuels) !n FTro dcftnse tore at thefr O 1 C{ s d e fund. empt from c rrent penakcy of tree MINIMUM HORIZONTAL CLEARANCE X 2X x FLAT TO MILD SLOPE (LESS THAN 2030 MILD TO MODERATE SLOPE (20 %-40%) 1 MODERATE TO STEEP SLOPE (GREATER THAN 4O%J