Opinion
4A
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Other Views
Houses must
be built to
withstand ﬁ re
hat the scene has become familiar makes it no
less wrenching: A distraught couple searches
through the ash, char and melted metal of what
was once their home. Only the concrete pad and the
occasional ﬁ replace remain.
What also is in that tableau are trees. A few are killed
and many are scorched, but most are alive and green.
The house vaporized because it could not cope with ﬁ re;
the forest survived because it could. And paradoxically,
it was the house ﬁ re that killed the trees.
Those ear-
ly-kindled houses
STEPHEN
then cast ﬁ re to
neighbors. What
PYNE
began as a wild-
WRITERS ON THE RANGE
land ﬁ re ampli-
ﬁ ed into an urban
conﬂ agration. It’s
the sort of scene
JACK COHEN
that was common
WRITERS ON THE RANGE
in the American
frontier over a
century ago. Watching it burn through Paradise or Berry
Creek, California, today is like watching smallpox or
polio return.
Yet detailed studies, over and over, move the primary
problem from the source, where the ﬁ re comes from, to
the “sink,” where the ﬂ ames go. A tidal wave of ﬁ re we
can’t stop. But the threatening ﬁ re actually moves into
and through the town more like a blizzard of sparks: If
there are places of vulnerability, embers will ﬁ nd them.
That is why the best defense is to harden our houses.
Surviving ﬁ res depends on what ﬁ re researchers call
the “home ignition zone” (HIZ). Flammable roofs, close
vegetation next to wood siding or porches, ground cover
that can carry ﬁ re along the surrounding surface — all
are chinks that ﬁ re can exploit.
Since structures typically occupy a setting with other
structures, the vulnerability of each depends on the vul-
nerability of its neighbors, and a town itself might be lik-
ened to a rambling structure that also needs defensible
space.
Zoning, greenbelts and codes regulating the relative
risk of collective housing won’t halt embers, but they can
make protecting hardened structures easier and safer.
Call that expanded site the “housing environmental risk
zone” (HERZ).
Because the reality is we can’t abolish ﬁ re in the
countryside and shouldn’t want to. A century of trying
has taught us we can’t muster a counterforce to halt
the conﬂ agrations that cause most of the damage. Even
attempting to eliminate all ﬁ res only disrupts ecological
beneﬁ ts and lets fuels build up that create the conditions
for even worse ﬁ res. So while the ﬁ re source does matter,
the ﬁ re sink matters more.
We’ve lived through waves of ﬁ re like this before,
twice. The country endured a horriﬁ c chronicle of con-
ﬂ agrations with agricultural settlement through the 19th
and early 20th centuries. And it suffered through routine
city infernos that burned like their surrounding land-
scapes since they were made of the same materials.
The last big urban outbreak occurred when San Fran-
cisco burned in 1906.
The last big rural community that burned during the
1918 ﬁ res occurred outside the town of Cloquet, Min-
nesota. It killed 435 people, some while ﬂ eeing in their
automobiles.
In recent decades the country has recolonized for-
merly rural lands with an urban outmigration. Most are
exurbs that don’t rely on a rural economy or use ﬁ re in
traditional ways. The ﬁ re susceptibility that resulted,
however, was identiﬁ ed by the wildland ﬁ re commu-
nity as houses crowding into wildlands. More accurately,
the scene could just as easily be characterized as bits of
cities with peculiar landscaping.
Do that, and it is clear what measures must be taken
to protect them from ﬁ re. You apply the same strategies
and techniques that earlier removed ﬁ re from cityscapes.
Meanwhile, the wildland-urban ﬁ re problem has been
unnecessarily complicated because it got misdeﬁ ned.
It will prove tricky to unwind, because so many com-
munities built in the ﬂ ush times will have to be retro-
ﬁ tted to accommodate the current conditions. The good
news is that HIZ, HERZ and history show us where to
concentrate the effort. The bad news is that there isn’t
much time to dawdle.
About the Authors
Stephen Pyne and Jack Cohen are contributors to
Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, a non-
proﬁ t dedicated to spurring lively conversation about
the West. Steve Pyne is the author of “Between Two
Fires: A Fire History of Contemporary America” and
“To the Last Smoke,” a series of regional ﬁ re sur-
veys. Jack Cohen is a retired U.S. Forest Service ﬁ re
researcher and the inventor of the home ignition-zone
concept.
T
Letters
We should all be praying for
unity
In reply to Anne Morrison’s “My
Voice” (Sept. 12): I am extremely
sorry you went through that horrible
experience. No woman should have
that happen to them, and I cannot in
my heart ﬁ nd any excuse for it.
These may be your feelings toward
our president, but what about the
claims toward Vice President Joe
Biden? Do you excuse him, or Presi-
dent Bill Clinton, or any of the other
numerous politicians and other public
ofﬁ cials who have been accused and
condemned of the same things?
A great many of us are called
racist without cause and accused of
many acts just because we believe in
the right of liberty and free speech.
That is why you have the right to
write your letter, as do l. Respecting
the opinions of others should also be
considered.
Will you vote for someone who has
been accused of those same things as
I read your critique of Oregon’s
habitat plan in the Sept. 12 “Our
View.” I wonder why you call a mod-
erate reduction in timber harvest a
“plummet.” If you spend time in the
forest, you will know that nothing
resembles those banner years for
board-feet.
I grew up along with the biggest
trees. It rained and rained for eight
months a year. The forest ﬂ oor was
like a sponge that breathed moisture
during four months of sunshine. Fires
were seldom. Smoke wasn’t a part of
our summers.
The timber harvest you promote
depends on rainfall. Rain depends on
halting climate change. You wrote
opinions opposing Oregon’s plans for
climate stability.
You scoff at saving habitat for
birds and critters. Well, they keep the
earth in balance. Animals and birds
consume insects and keep the soil
alive. To remove them would be like
removing everything from your diet
except bread. A forest needs balanced
nutrients to grow and thrive.
For once, just listen to the scien-
tists who have studied our forests for
decades. Let’s show respect for their
work and preserve habitat before it’s
too late.
Mary Cooke
Cove
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the person you are degrading? Hatred,
lies and abuses including violence such
as our country has never seen by so
many does not beneﬁ t anyone and only
causes more discord and unrest.
Instead we should all be praying
for our country. To make us whole
again as one people who love this
land and the life that far outweighs
every other nation in the world.
God bless America and all it stands
for.
Nathiel Conrad
Cove
Preserving habitats will save
the forests
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