Applegater
Winter 2012 11
Are you ember aware yet?
BY SANDY SHAFFER
Free
BE EMBER AWARE
Brochures
They may be small, but they are lethal! Embers such as these (top photo)
during a wildfire are overwhelmingly the main reason that homes burn. Your
home, my home, any home can be vulnerable to embers, but some simple tips
and safe building materials can help save your home.
You’ve heard this before, but take a look at the pictures on the right. Here’s
a brick house in Texas (center photo) that had a metal roof and a very clean (and
recently inspected) defensible space. But it burned in 2005. Why?
Embers collected in and ignited a fiber doormat, which then burned
through the wooden door at the back of the house. A metal or other
nonflammable mat might have saved this house.
And what about this neighborhood in southern California? Why
did only one home (bottom photo, in upper right) survive this wildfire
in 2000? Correct—embers couldn’t get inside to ignite it…
So, get your free copy of BE EMBER AWARE today and
start preparing your home for next summer’s fire season. Stop by any Applegate
Valley Fire District neighborhood kiosk to pick one up, or drop in to Headquarters
on Upper Applegate Road in Ruch for your free copy.
Sandy Shaffer
for Applegate Valley
Fire District #9
ATTENTION
APPLEGATE LANDOWNERS
Grant funding has just become available to assist landowners in thinning fuels
on rural properties! This could be the last chance to obtain financial help in
doing hazardous fuels thinning. Funds are limited, so call today!
Requirements:
1. Multiple acres need to be treated by the landowner, preferably 5 acres
or more.
2. The Fire District will assist landowners in defining the treatments, to
meet minimum standards.
3. Landowners will be reimbursed up to $400 per acre treated.
4. The particular area being treated cannot have received grant fund
assistance to be thinned in the past (however, the property owner could
have received assistance to thin other parts of their property in the
past).
5. The work must be completed no later than November 30, 2012.
Suggestions:
6. It is preferred that several adjacent neighbors plan together to thin their
properties at the same time, so that a larger contiguous fuel break area
is realized.
7. Thinning your property that is adjacent to federal lands also helps create
larger fuel breaks.
8. Thinning along a long shared driveway is a good way to meet these
requirements and also provide safe egress/access for all.
9. The Fire District can assist landowners in having the thinning completed
by utilizing County Justice crews, or the landowner can do the work
themselves and be reimbursed, or contract the work out to be done by
others.
For more information:
Call Chief Brett Fillis at Applegate Fire District today: 541-899-1050.
JOB OPPORTUNITY
The Applegater newspaper needs an advertising
salesperson for Josephine County.
Contact J.D. Rogers, Editor
541-846-7736 or gater@applegater.org