Wildfires in Irvine
Photo credit Malachi Brooks
As yesterday’s Laguna Canyon fire reminded us all, Irvine is at risk for wildfires. The Vine spoke with Orange County Fire Authority’s Greg Barta, a Fire Captain and Public Information Officer, about how we can prevent the next wildfire.
Although always at risk for wildfires now that the danger looms year-round, Irvine’s weather dictates when we are likely to face one. The lower the humidity, the hotter the air temperature, and the higher the wind speeds, the higher the probability of a wildfire reaching our community. Of course Irvinites cannot control the weather, but there are many steps we can take to protect ourselves and our neighborhoods.
“Prevention is the key,” Barta says. “Take note of your actions and your surroundings, and how that could potentially start a brush fire. For example, if you’re doing yard work on a really hot, dry day with lots of brush around, you need to be incredibly careful. Simply nicking a rock with a lawnmower could cause a spark that could ignite a fire. So it might be better to wait for an alternate time to do that when we're not at a heightened state of awareness due to the weather.”
In addition to prevention, Barta recommends preparing your home to slow the spread of flames in your area.
“If you're a homeowner, you can prep your home,” explains Barta. “Make sure you have good brush clearance around your home. Make sure there's no dead vegetation, which is fuel for that fire, close to your home. That's one of the biggest things you can do.”
Barta also cautions Irvinites to check their homes for potential fire danger from flying embers.
“If you have access points for embers to enter your attic or into your home, that makes you very susceptible to a fire igniting within your home,” cautions Barta. “Obviously we see embers that get cast and thrown a significant distance even from the main body of fire when we have those winds. So anything you can do to give your home the best chance to survive is key.”
Once they’ve received an evacuation order, Barta urges residents to follow instructions.
“If you’re given an evacuation order, please heed that advice,” says Barta. “It's for your own safety. We don't give those orders lightly. We do realize it's an impact and an inconvenience, however we make those decisions based on your safety. And then the other thing is, it allows us easier access into neighborhoods so that we can defend those homes. And that's our main goal. We want to make sure the community stays safe and it's much easier for us to operate if people have evacuated the area and we have the ability to move about with ease.”
If the worst case scenario arises and an evacuation order is issued for your neighborhood, do you know what you’ll take with you? Barta urges Irvinites to plan ahead.
“Have your checklist of what it is you're going to bring with you,” advises Barta. “What are those absolute essentials?”
Once you have your checklist, Barta recommends taking an overly cautious approach to fire weather and prepare those items ahead of time.
“When you have this heightened danger based on the weather, it might be a good idea just preemptively to stage some of those items in a spot that’s easily accessible,” suggests Barta. “So if you're given that evacuation order, you can rapidly grab those items that you have deemed important.”
Once you’ve grabbed your essentials and evacuated, the firefighters may need access to your home in order to defend it. Leaving a door unlocked may save a firefighter the time and effort of breaking a door or window to get access to your house.
“If you can leave like a backslider open,” says Barta, “that's helpful for us to get into the house if we have to do something to defend it.”
Although all of Irvine is susceptible to a wildfire, some areas of our city are at greater risk than others.
“We saw in those fires last year, those fires butted up next to a handful of homes in the Orchard Hills and Portola Hills communities,” recalls Barta. “There are communities within Irvine that are definitely at risk.”
Barta hopes that a team approach will mitigate any future fire risk that Irvine may face.
“We consider all of us a team, the fire department and the citizens out there,” Barta says. “We can all work together to prevent these fires. That's the biggest thing. Help us prevent them. That makes our job easier and increases the likelihood of you out there in the community not being impacted by these fires.”
So when are we likely to have another wildfire? Barta predicts we won’t have to wait for long, so start hardening your home, making your checklist, and watching your activity on fire weather days to prevent the next wildfire.
“Weather predictions have shown that we're going to have activity similar to last year,” warns Barta. “The other thing is the moisture levels. The water content within the brush and the grass out here is critically low levels. So the fuel out there is ripe to burn. That's why we need everyone's help preventing these fires because it's ready to burn if ignited.”
Ready to join the fire prevention effort? To learn more, check out the Orange County Fire Authority’s online resources.