Texas Wildfires

Texas is dry as a bone and this weekend has been unusually windy. Result: 25,000 acres and 476 homes burned in one wildfire outside the Texas capital plus dozens of smaller fires.
Link Here.

I live in a highly wooded area on the north side of Houston. Currently it's estimated that 10% of the trees in Houston have died due to the drought. In the last three days there have been four separate forest fires within six miles of our house. The closest is been less than two miles away. That fire will have to jump a stream to endanger our neighborhood...but the stream is down to 10 feet across and six inches deep due to the drought. Thankfully the crazy winds are dying down.

BOB is packed and ready.
-Blast

Stay safe Blast!

sounds really bad,a storm is nasty but a fire destroys everything in it's path.

Stay safe Blast, the news reports sound horrible.

Thanks. The neighborhood is hazy with smoke this morning but the winds have dropped down to nil. This should help bring the fires under control.

According to the news this morning there are over 65 million dead trees in Houston right now due to the drought. if the drought continues this could double. If fires don't take those trees the next big storm will.
-Blast

Glad your winds have dropped. In a high wind situation, fire lines of any width are ineffective. Driven by Santa Ana winds, fire in southern California have jumped four lane freeways. Wind propelled embers will start spot fires two to three miles ahead of the main flame front.

What is the deal with all these Texas fires? Growing up in big D many moons ago, we never heard of such things. Texas being Texas, is it just that yours have to be bigger than anyone else's.....

Stay safe, Blast.

Now up to 57 fires, over 1000 homes burned.

Texas has been in a drought since last fall, we've only recieved 15% of our normal rainfall in the last year. We had over 30 days in a row above 100F in July & August here in Houston. Everything is dead and dry.

I took down and oak tree back in early August and stacked the wood to dry. The wind and heat acted like a dehydrator, the oak logs are already dried and splitting. They look like they've been sitting a year already.

-Blast

Blast already mentioned the extreme drought conditions and many 100+ degree days there this summer. I doubt that most folks who don't live in the region realize how bad the drought is there. There's a map that goes along with this article that shows how badly affected Texas is by drought.

It's interesting that coming from California, we don't show up on this map. Only recently did we emerge from our own long drought period and many horrible wildfire seasons in a row.

And if we recall those horrible wildfires in Australia a couple years back, those occurred during a historic multi-year drought there.

Way to close. The wildfires we've had in SOCAL have jumped I-15 which at that point was about 10 lanes (5 heading north and 5 south). With a little wind, jumping a stream ain't nuttin.

65 million dead trees!!that's something that i have not heard on the news along with the fire reports.even when all this is over it's going to be a ecological disaster.

Is there a plan to get Houstonians organised with axes to clear out the dead standing wood and keep it for winter fuel? This would not only reduce the wild fire risk this year but also in the future. It also would give every Houstonian family enough winter fuel for the next decade.

Tragic. We're praying you'll get rain!

I was listening to the news about the fire, and thinking of you, Blast, hoping it wasn't in your area.

I hope the usual if-I'm-ready-it-won't-happen rule applies to you.

Good luck, fingers, toes and eyes crossed for you and your family.

Sue

Unfortunately real fireplaces are pretty rare in Houston. Everyone (including us) has decorative natural gas-burning fireplaces with artificial logs.

The city has lost more trees to the drought than to hurricane Ike. Keep in mind the millions of trees I mentioned are just those INSIDE Houston city limits. Statewide the number of dead trees are orders of magnitude larger.:( Texas could possibly lose over 20% of all its trees before this is over.

-Blast

Remember, if you know without doubt it's time to leave, the fire is too close.

It's been really ugly this year. The last measurable rain I've had was in early March - a whole 1/2". Nothing measurable since then.

I'm ~10 or 12 miles from the big fire in Bastrop. When the fire is 7 miles wide and 16 miles long my distance is not any comfort. Yesterday (30 and 40 mile winds towards the south) was scary looking. It looked like a HUGE storm to our east. I have friends that are much closer. They are only a few miles away, but the ash blew and swirled through their place like snow all day yesterday. They had their trucks loaded and were ready to take off at a moments notice. I'm born and grew up here, but I'm not real fond of Texas right now.

We'll keep you in our prayers Blast. We've had a pretty bad go of it on this side of the Red River too but our fires never got anywhere near as bad as those in Texas. Luckily we've recently had some decent rains up in the northeastern corner of the state which have taken the edge off the worst of the drought for some of us.

That non-stop heat this summer was something else; anything that sat exposed to the elements looks to have aged years in one season.

Texans... best of luck...I was stationed in San Angelo for tech school in the 70's...treated very well by the locals...I wish I could trade you the rain we're having

Unfortunately, we have wildfires here in Florida all the time and they seem the scariest of natural disasters because of their intensity and unpredictable nature. I few years ago, the inventor of Barricade Fire Blocking Gel came to one of our CERT meetings and put on an incredible demonstration of his product which is a sticky gel that you apply to the house with a garden hose before evacuating. I was amazed at how well it protected a simple piece of plywood from a propane torch. A lot of us now keep a container in the garage just in case. The inventor, a retired fireman, generally travels to areas like this in an attempt to help save homes, so I'll bet he is in Texas now. I am not associated with the inventor, but was absolutely amazed at this product.

The fire retardent gels/foams are impressive products. Of course, it would be folly for any homeowner to think that they're protected just because they have a few cans of this stuff in their garage. As with most disasters, it's best to have multiple responses/preps.

I'm reminded of a couple recent wildfires here in Southern California. One of them started near a large housing development mid-morning on a weekday, so many of those homes were empty and totally unprepared for the fire because there was no fire at all when people headed off to work. There was a massive traffic jam of people trying to get back to their homes to grab stuff and pets, but vehicular traffic was prevented from re-entering because the flames were already so close to the homes.

There was a wildfire situation near Yorba Linda where very low water pressure was an issue. I think a pumping station was overrun by fire and so a whole neighborhood uphill from there was basically without water. Anyway, so anyone depending on using their garden hose to apply a product like this could be so out of luck.

One thing I'm not sure if a product like addresses are bigger openings, like an attic vent, where wind-driven embers could enter and how many homes in SoCal caught on fire. I doubt it's viscose enough to bridge a fairly wide gap like that. Well, a prepared homeowner would've already put fine mesh screens over bigger openings like that to catch embers before they entered the home.

Parts of SOCAL have large numbers of eucalyptus trees. Eucalyptus are very oily and when they catch fire they can literally explode; embers from that is what crossed the 10 lanes of interstate.

Fires move and with the right wind and fuel, they can move very fast.

Skimmed most of the thread, but I do have a question from those who do live in wildfire prone areas (not really a concern here, although small wildfires have popped up on occasion). Does a tin roof seem to have a better chance of saving your house? Or, how would you keep a shingle roof from catching fire when embers are landing on it?

I think most asphalt shingles now contain fireproofing additives, but I'm not positive.
-Blast

Wood shingle roof would be a big no-no. But there are any number of things to keeping your home safer. Preventing embers from drifting up under overhanging eaves or into attic vents with mesh screens, clearing dry debris from inside rain gutters, keeping vegetation away from the house, clearing a defensible area around your property, making sure fire trucks can drive down your street (e.g. many hillside homes have very narrow, windy access roads, which are often further constricted with street parking), etc. can increase your odds of saving your home if a wildfire threatens.

One thing you can try with a shingle roof is wetting it down with a hose during the fire event. Particularly try and force water up under the shingles. Good luck since you may well not have sufficient water pressure in your water main due to other demands.

I bought a house here in SoCal that had a wood shingle roof. The first major project I undertook was to replace it with asphalt shingles. They are not fireproof by any means, but they are way better than wood shingles. Oddly enough, it did not change my insurance rate. A tin roof would have made a difference.

True, but one of the little things many people don't realize is that in order to allow the house/attic to breathe we have these louver vent thingies under our eaves.

Air is sucked into the attic through the louver's and exhausts though other vents. During a fire, all it takes is one ember to get sucked up through the louver and it doesn't matter what you have for roofing material. The fire starts under your roof.

I don't think the attic vents should be sucking anything in, they should be letting hot air out, via thermal convection. Of course, this isn't to say that embers couldn't be blown in by wind.

Another thing to remember is to keep your fire hydrants visible. Keep the weeds and shrubbery away from the hydrant so their location is obvious. Many places have a blue reflector embedded in the middle of the street to mark the fire hydrants, but some don't.

If you're downwind of a fire, it's pretty hot as it approaches. It will probably dry out very quickly any moisture you apply to your roof. But if everyone does it, you're probably lowering the water pressure for the fire department. Suit yourself. Keep your fire policy number with you.

You can't stop a wildfire, and you're crazy if you think you can. Get out while you can!

Sue

Sue -- As hot air leaves the attic through vents, it is replaced by air entering through those lower vents. During a wildfire there is a lot of hot air moving inside and outside. If the fire is close enough an ember can easily enter an attic. That's how some of the house fires in SOCAL got started. Nice house, tile roof, fire gets too close and a fire starts in the attic.

You need a very healthy set-back anywhere in the SW. Peeps that build their dream home "cabin-in-the-woods" will find themselves unable to get rid of that treeline fast enough.

Asphalt shingles of today do have a much better fire rating than, 10 yrs ago!The wind created by the wild fire will allow embers to fly in every direction,including under the eves,into the vents,& under the shingles themselves.Swimming pools/Water tanks have saved many homes,many times,I have also seen Full swimming pools full of debris,next to the slab that once contained a home.I wish the Blast family the Best of Luck,& All of Texas for that matter,Be Safe!

The benefit of a tin roof is that it is difficult for embers to enter. The only points of weakness are (normally) around the edges: top ridge, botton edge (near the gutters).
So it pays to seal these areas properly. When fire is possible, folk here are advided to block the down pipes and fill the gutter with water, this stops embers collecting and working under the tin.

Its embers entering the house, esp the roof space that cause many houses to burn, although strong radiant heat, or actual flames will burn it too.

Some people install smoke alarms in their roof. You should make sure that you have a ladder in place so that you can check up there for any embers, and an extinguisher at the ready.

Don't count on municipal water pressure if you are at home during a fire; all you neighbours will have their hoses on and any fire trucks will be hooked up too; and if power fails (as it often does) the pumps which keep the water pressurized will proibably fail too, so there will be no water.

Best practice is to have your own pump with plenty of fuel and a secure water supply like a pool or fireproof water tank/s.

Good luck Blast, but I hope you don't need it !

You must have different vents than we have around here, but the homes around here are also pretty rinky-dink.

One thing that I always think of is fire, when I see those complicated-looking homes with different roof levels... tons of corners for burning embers to settle in.

There's a new home near the freeway that looks like it's made from leftover parts, all dormers and cupolas. It looks like something that would draw fire like a magnet.

Sue