It's time to prepare for wildfires, prepare zone 1 and zone 2 now, I explain it in this blog.

  The rain continues to fall, saturating the ground making everything green when the sun shows a person can almost hear the grass and weeds grow. I keep looking out the window into the garden to see if my potato tower is doing anything, it isn't, of course, I just put it together last week. I will plant the garden on and after April 1st, (my wife's birthday), the frost is most likely over for the year.(I woke up this morning 3/18/18 to frost, my weather prediction as usual is way off.) The pasture across the river is in its full glory, knee-high grass, and bright green.

It's nice and green now after the rain stops it will turn golden.

  The grass is growing, when the rain stops it doesn't take very long for it to turn brown. I'm not sure but I've heard that's where the motto of California comes from, "The Golden State", all the grass and weeds turn golden during the spring and summer. I was looking at the rain pouring down on the Diablo Range of Mountains west of my house, Mount Diablo is due West. That's the mountain I saw a wildfire started one spring day a few years ago, it started with a puff of smoke. A plume of smoke was not far behind the initial dot, I have never found out what started it. That fire grew rapidly, coursing its way up the side of the mountain it soon covered a good 1/4 of the mountain in my sight. Wildfires travel uphill very quickly, they will go downhill but the progress is much slower, that's what this one did it ran up the hill. It was not a huge fire, but I'm fairly certain if you're on the fire line fighting it small or large can't make a lot of difference. There are no structures on that mountain until the top where the State has tourist buildings. There is also a beacon, the light is lit on December 7 each year and shines until dawn December 8, The Beacon was originally lit in 1928 by Charles Lindberg to commemorate the early days of flying. It was lit each night until December 8, 1941, the day following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Then continued on December 7 after the war.
  During the rain, we hardly think about wildfires but now may be the best time to start making preparations for what we know is unfortunately sure to come. It's cool out and the ground is soft which makes digging and pulling stumps and trees out of the ground a bit easier. We can take a look around the house to either maintain the defensive zone or if one is none existent we can construct one. The defensible zone consist of 2 areas which adjoin one another, I've made a list of some of the tasks we can accomplish starting today:

Zone 1:
   * A space surrounding the house extending 30 feet from any structure, decks, garages, and outbuildings.
   * All vegetation needs to be removed, dead plants, fallen trees, dead trees, and plants all should go.
   * Clean rain gutters, roofs, leaves and dead pine needles and boughs.
   * Tree branches need to be trimmed to be sure there is a 10-foot distance between trees and buildings. Call your electric utility company to trim limbs away from power lines. Don't perform this task yourself, utility companies are responsible for this, they hire experts.
    * All tree branches that are above the roof need to be removed, making especially sure to keep at least a 10-foot distance from a chimney.
    * If there is firewood stacked in this zone, it needs to be moved to zone 2.
    * Clear shrubs and bushes from windows, in the high temperatures created by a wildfire they can appear to explode into a ball of fire.
    * Clean clutter, and all flammables from around and under the decks, stairs, and outbuildings.
    * Make sure there is plenty of space between flammable objects.

Zone 2:
    * A 100-foot clear space that extends out from the house, outbuildings, and all structures.
    * Keep the annual grasses mowed, a maximum height of 4 inches.
    * Trees and bushes need a horizontal spacing of at least 10 feet.
    * The space from the ground to the bottom branches of trees, bushes, and shrubs should be 6 feet at a minimum.
    * Remove all fallen leaves, tree limbs, twigs, and flammable materials, some jurisdictions allow them to a depth of 3 inches. Check with your local fire authorities.

  Vegetation on hills require more spacing than trees, shrubs, and bushes on a flat level surface, the steeper the slope the more spacing needed between them. All branches need to be removed up to at least 6 feet from the ground. Fire will climb the branches of a tree like a ladder, causing larger hotter fires and endangering the firefighting personnel.
  Fire resistant plants can be planted as well, when placed strategically they resist the spread of fire, reducing the threat to the home. Fire resistant landscaping is not very expensive, it can conserve water, and increase the value of your home. Its spring and time to plant if new landscaping is planned now is the time and most fire-resistant plants conserve water.
This is a Link to the Homeowners checklist, How to make your home fire safe.
  Leave the firefighting to the fire department, I have been involved in a lot of fires, airplane, barn fires, and fires on board a ship. My neighbors' houses burned 6 years ago, two burned to the ground, one suffered extensive damage. A phone call roused my wife and I at 2 am, my neighbor ladies voice was on the other end, "get out of your house we have a huge fire!" After dressing and running upstairs to a window I observed a wall of flames which seemed to be over 50 feet high, two houses were totally engulfed in flames, the fire department was still 15 minutes away. When I got to the levee I saw my neighbor lady and her husband with garden hoses on their deck next to the house spraying water on it. She was in her nightgown, wearing flip-flops, standing next to a big pine tree which was 20 feet from the towering flames, I thought she was a goner. I had visions of that tree bursting into a fireball with her suffering the brunt of the burst of flames.

Trees will explode into a fire under the right conditions, stay clear
of them during a fire.

It never happened, the fire department did arrive, we live far from a fire station when they showed up the firefighters made them evacuate to a safer area. There is more to the story, for a month prior to the fire she had been washing that tree down with a water hose, every day. I asked her what in the heck she was doing, her reply was the tree was dropping huge amounts of yellow pollen, and she suffers severe allergies. She found when she washed the stuff off of the tree, house, and deck it lessened her reaction to it. They were lucky, that tree was soaking wet when the fire started, however when it ended the tree was literally cooked and had to be removed several weeks later, it was most likely moments away from catching fire in a spectacular way. The lesson is to leave the firefighting to the firefighters, don't try to extinguish a fire with a garden hose, especially a wildfire, it is not worth the risk.

  The fire season in the Western States will soon be upon us, if we get a jump on preparing for it we will be steps ahead, and if it happens the damage and loss of life will be reduced. It's unfortunate but when the rain stops the drying starts and it takes just a few days to become tinder dry. Link to a wildfire survival kit.
  Thanks for reading and sharing, I'm thinking about the threat, aware enough to begin to prepare, if we start now it can be accomplished in a stressless environment.
jacquesandkate  EmergencyKitsPlus.com