natural self-reliance

  Wild fires in the West, the season is upon us once again, and they are burning bright in Utah, Arizona and California. After the intense winter rains we experienced this year the grass will grow tall rapidly. As usual everything stays green for about a week after the rains stop, thus the nick name "Golden State", it's not the bridge, it's not the gold rush it's dry grass that gives the state it's nickname. I look out the window to the west, sitting in my chair taking care of my web business and blogs, Mount Diablo looms in the distance about 15 miles away. It's an old mountain range, it doesn't get much rain, and all summer long it is a long dry fire prone area. The Diablo range starts where the

Mount Diablo, the "home of the Devil", dry and flammable

American river flows into Suisun Bay which meets San Francisco Bay. The range runs all the way to the Tehachapi's or as most people refer to it "the grape vine", there it meets the southern sierra's. There are very few natural sources of water, no run off flows into the valley, it is a dry summertime area.
  I have watched from afar, the only course of action I have when a fire starts on the hillside is to call 911 and tell them, when I do that every time it was already reported by several people. It's an amazing sight to see when a fire starts, I can see the smoke column rising straight into the sky. It takes a few minutes for the fire to grow out of control, at least it appears to from 15 miles away, then it accelerates. The last one I saw encompassed the mountain about 3/4 of the way around, a lot of credit goes to the fire fighters. It burned for 3 days as I recall, I do not remember the name of the fire, we name everything. Fires normally are named after the area they are destroying.
  Christmas tree fire. (Bear with me it's relevant). The tree was in a mock living area with a chair and table, the string of lights shorted out. From the time of the short to the time the entire room was on fire took about 40 seconds, not even one minute. I imagine a wild fire is possible of the same speed, however a wild fire appears to be quicker. How in the world can people react that quickly? There are pro-active tasks we can perform, clear away from buildings at least 100 feet, cut down rotten trees and clear rubbish piles. It would help some what, probably give us a few more seconds to get out, less than a minute to hit the door. We can develop an emergency plan and have a survival kit by the door with all of our important personal items in it. We can have a fire proof safe, keeping all our legal documents, pictures and other important paperwork, a house fire burns above the melting point of steel. (2500 degrees F 1370 C approx.) We can keep our vehicles filled with fuel, in good running order with an evacuation kit inside. Then the live stock, I don't have any experience dealing with livestock around fires, it's not a good situation, people do not want to leave them behind. Sometimes we have no choice. All of this to be accomplished in one minute, holy smokes, it's a lot, just knowing you will never be able to enter your home again is a very hard thought. FEMA has information on livestock in a wild fire, click here to read it.

Know when to leave, you have less than one minute to get out,
go on, get it out of here!

I have never been close to a wild fire that engulfed a home, however on the local newscast from time to time they show it. What appears to happen is the fire approaches the structure, the heat is so intense the house burst into flames engulfing the entire structure. Wild fires in the west are fast moving and lethal. I watched a video put on by the local fire department showing a
 

This is an old map, I added it to show how widespread
wild fires are. 

So the wild fires in the west are at it again, the summer sky filled with haze, the lakes which are lower than the mountains fill with smoke to the water line, and on road trips caravans of fire fighters being ferried to the next fire pass us in the fast lane.
  What can we do? Make an evacuation plan the more detail the better, make sure your vehicle is ready to go, have a three day emergency evacuation pack at the ready in case you have to walk out and prioritize your belongings, what do we really need to take with us.
  I'd like to hear your take, leave a message, comment or suggestion. If you've been in a wild fire I'd like to hear about it if you feel like sharing it.

jimandkate   EmergencyKitsPlus.com