Great info, thank you!

This is making me rethink the coming drip conversion. My old style sprays kept the wood chips moist.

We unfortunately have junipers close to the house, but beyond that there are large areas of cleared land, and we're going to be out there with hoses watering everything down, and the house is tile and stucco, so we'll hope for the best. Our mulch is leaves from our trees and that's fairly easy to wet down.

Words fail me at a time like this. I cannot imagine living somewhere that fires like that would be a worry. Fire is so devastating. I hope you are safe now. thanks for the pointers though, you never know when that kind of information will be useful.

Valerie

HoovB, I had not heard about the roofing variance that was granted in Santa Rosa. That really is too bad. I wonder how much difference it might have made. I suspect that won't happen again! I know people like the look of shake or cedar roofs but it isn' t worth the risk.

Valerie, I myself am located about 100 miles from the fires to the north, and 40 miles from the even more recent fires in the Santa Cruz Mountains. But there have been wildfires as close as 10 miles of us, fortunately smaller ones that were successfully contained.

It is breathtakingly beautiful here. I have a 30 mile view, maybe further, but I am within the outskirts of a vibrant town of 60,000+ residents. I hear birdsong much of the day yet two major freeways are conveniently within a couple of miles from us. There are rewards for living here. You just have to be sensible. We are doing a lot to make the place safer. When the time comes to re-roof in a few years I think we will go with metal shingles.

Bad things happen everywhere - blizzards, heat waves, droughts, tornadoes, mudslides, earthquakes, fires, crime. I'm sure I missed some. You just have to know what your local risks are and do your best to be prepared.

Rosefolly

One other thing to remember: Here where we have dry/hot summers, there has been a movement to plant a lot of "drought resistant" plants, to save water. Juniper is one of those. The problem with many "drought resistant plants" is that they are full of resins, and EXPLODE in fires! They are completely the opposite of "fire resistant" plants, which are low growing, and hold a lot of water.

In the Napa/Sonoma fires, the actual vineyards did not burn - the grape vines were still green, and of course low growing, not to mention having rows of dirt between them. I read that some owners or workers of the vineyards, who came (snuck) back in to take care of the just harvested grape juice which was in tanks, parked their trucks in the middle of the vineyards at night and slept in them to be safe from the still raging fires.

Our fire dept here tells us to irrigate our gardens very well, and plant things that like water! Of course, meanwhile the water district is trying to get people to take our their lawns (the definition of low growing fire resistant landscaping!) to save water. I think I would rather have lawns and roses in the garden and not have my house burn down, but then we can afford the huge water bills.

Jackie

Not all drought resistant plants are full of resins and will explode, but certainly many are and do. Our native oaks are actually considered to be in the moderate category, and don't need supplemental water once established. Some natives are ephemeral, meaning that they disappear in the dry season and come back when it is wet again. Some of the native salvias are bad, some good. The same is true of ceanothus. Now unfortunately the beautiful manzanitas are all in the bad category. I have indeed planted several here, but all well away from the house or any structures. We have about two and a half acres so there is a lot of room. The manzanitas are also located away from trees to avoid creating fire ladders. Wait, I just thought of one that is not so; I'll have to move it as soon as the rains come and the soil becomes workable. Succulents are excellent. They do require water, but much less, and since they hold the water they don't burn as easily.

But yes, near the house is the place to locate beautiful plants you love that require water, such as roses. The fire marshal who spoke to our group told us that areas 30 feet from the house should all be "defensible", meaning well watered and fire resistant or nonflammable. And of that 30 feet, no wood-based mulch should be within 5 feet. We are aiming for 10, and will come pretty close by the time we are done.

One quick overview: http://firecenter.berkeley.edu/docs/CE_homelandscaping.pdf

Wood chip mulch is mentioned in the document above, but the fire marshal who gave the talk was much more adamant about it.

Rosefolly

Thanks rosefolly. I was also thinking about the new garden decorating fad which uses all kinds of tall (frequently dry) grasses. I just think it is ironic that this new "water wise" type of garden design is currently the rage, while cities are simultaneously fining homeowners for having "tall dry grass" neglected in their front yards. I do not think the fires care whether the tall dry grass is ugly or designer - it is great fuel in either case.

Jackie

I'm not crazy about tall grasses anyway. Some reseed madly and can become invasive. Others produce foxtails which can cause dogs much suffering. Our previous dog Freya had to have surgery for removal of infected foxtails on two occasions.

A couple of things: hail storms and insurance costs of roofing. Slate does break with large hail. Also from the way it's hammered in, you need an open attic ceiling to get in to replace individual shingles (New Orleans slate rooves are a bitch to keep maintained.) Insurance used to be higher in the east for a metal roof because of hail problems; there may be some tie ins to metal thicknesses now.

The east is just now realizing that Pampas Grass shouldn't be anywhere near a house or garage.

Wood against a house: termites appreciate the escalators into your walls.

Some wood sided homes near Gatlinburg TN (last fall's fires) burn so hot that aluminum didn't just melt, but flowed down hill, We know someone who got to go in to check that all natural gas lines were cut off before bringing in larger clearing equipment. He has an eleven inch long aluminum "ice cycle" that he tripped over. At that heat, almost everything ignites.

Wow. Ann, I did not know that. My parents in Pennsylvania had a house built with aluminum siding. It was the lighter gauge siding. I think heavier, sturdier siding came out a few years after their house was built. Anyway, the siding dented in a hailstorm. My Dad took the insurance money and used it to pay off a couple of years of mortgage! Last I saw the house under new ownership, the dents were still there. He deliberately chose that siding with fire resistance in mind. Brick would have been similarly resistant and only cost a little more, but there were six kids and our mother had not yet gone back to work, so money was a concern.

I myself have always been seriously in love with stone houses, but they are not a great idea in an earthquake prone area such as this. I lived in one for a few years as a child - before the aluminum siding house - and have always imagined that I would live in one again some day. Who knows?

The point is that there are advantages and drawbacks to every location and to every choice. The only completely bad choice is to ignore the disadvantages of your particular location and material, and do nothing about it, gambling on good fortune. I may buy a lottery ticket two or three times a year, but otherwise I am not a gambler.

Oh, and pampas grass is highly invasive. Pretty as it may be, no one should be planting it. The same is true for stipia (feather grass) out here on the west coast. I'm with Jackie in not loving the current trend for grass gardens, or even using ornamental grasses in mixed gardens. Lawn is okay if you have the water for it. It makes a pleasant frame for a real garden.

Rosefolly

Last winter we planted annual rye grass. It did stay green all winter and well into spring. That's a good thing for here because winter is our fire season: as defined by having dryer air. (And native grasses that are dry).
Local friends who work as foresters talk about how a fire can be intentionally set in summer and it just smolders until they get there to put it out: wet soils, humid air make summer a low risk fire season.

Last fall's fires around Gatlinburg came before our 'normal' dry season. It was a severe drought and the soil moisture was very low and the humidity was also low. A local celebrity emerged (literally) from the fire. Someone in the fire zone had a pet pig. They evacuated but the pig got loose; after the fires someone saw a slightly swampy area down their mountain and this thing came out of the mud. It was their pig. Safe but slightly singed where he hadn't gotten deep enough into the mud. Our county's tomato festival featured the pig and he was THE star.Charles, the pig. He even made the news in England. (I can't help but chuckle at that Bacon loving island.)