Are you prepared for a long, hot and dry fire season?

Enjoy the clear blue spring sky while you can. By all accounts, this year will be host to yet another hot, dry and smoky summer fire season.

“We’re already really dry,” Spokane County District 3 Division Chief Dustin Flock said. “The predictive outlook is higher than normal.”

He noted that moisture content is low in the area.

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources, who is responsible for preventing and fighting wildfires on 13 million acres of public and private land, on May 9 updated the fire danger level from low to moderate in nearly all of Eastern Washington and six Western Washington counties.

The DNR has already recorded 250 small fires this year, the largest a 7-acre burn in Mason County, according to spokeswoman Janet Pearce.

“The lowlands are dry and getting very drier,” Pearce said.

Spokane County has experienced fires as well.

“We’ve had a couple of small fires,” Flock said, that averaged about 200 square feet in size.

He noted there was a 23-acre fire in Oregon last week.

“Our stance is just making sure that people are prepared,” Flock said, both in terms of their property and evacuation plans in the event of a wildfire.

Ready, Set, Go

Fire departments this year are emphasizing a “Ready, Set, Go” concept that works in combination with evacuation levels.

“Ready” includes creating a defensible space around your home by considering your property’s “home ignition zone.” While conditions within a 100-foot radius is important, the space within 5 feet of a structure is the most critical, Flock said.

That space should be free of any combustible material such as gutter debris, stored firewood, wood fences, or dry, bare wood or other organic material that can easily ignite.

Upon request district fire officials will conduct a property assessment that informs homeowners of measures they can take to improve their property against wildfire.

Flock shared a story as an example: one home he assessed was “fabulous,” but a neighbor’s house and its outbuildings were covered in cedar shakes, both the roof and the siding.

“It’s kindling,” he said.

To be “set” means your family is prepared in advance to evacuate if necessary. Being prepared means having an establish evacuation plan that includes multiple routes, an established post-evacuation meeting place, knowing what things to grab when leaving, and having a pre-packed “go-bag” of personal essentials to grab as you dash out the door.

“Make it easy for yourself to evacuate,” Flock suggested.

Finally, “go” is simply putting your evacuation plan into action.

“It’s literally that: it’s time to go.” Flock said.

With a plan in place, it’s then simply a matter of monitoring wildfire evacuation levels if a fire erupts near your home.

Evacuation Levels

There are three evacuation levels that coincide with Ready, Set, Go.

Level 1 is being prepared to leave because conditions could get worse in your area. That is, “you have knowledge of the fire but you don’t need to leave,” Flock said.

Level 2 means being prepared to leave at a moments notice. If you have animals, you might have them corralled and ready to put them in the car. If you have livestock officials advise you to hookup your horse trailer and leave now.

A Level 3 evacuation means you are in danger and must leave immediately. Go — grab the kids, the dog, your go-bags and evacuate. Typically the Sheriffs Office, on the advice of fire officials, provide evacuation notices, with deputies knocking on doors, telling people to leave, Flock said.

There is also an app for smart phone users, called CodeRED, that’s available in both Apple and Android online app stores. You tell the app your location and it will provide warnings for emergency conditions for all four seasons within a 25-mile radius of your location.

“Ultimately, what it comes down to is homeowners being prepared,” Flock said.

Paradise

Asked if local fire officials were worried about infernos like last years Camp Fire that engulfed and destroyed the entire town of Paradise, Calif., killing 85 people in the process, Flock replied, “It’s a concern.”

Four wildfires burned on the West Plains last year. An early October fire caused by a transient campfire got out of control in southwest Cheney and threatened commercial buildings and other properties before being extinguished.

The Legislature this year appropriated $48. 34 million in wildfire-related funding for the DNR, including direct fire suppression and for “forest health treatment,” including prescribed burning and mechanical thinning to reduce ground fuels, according to Pearce.

Flock noted the trend has been for hotter, dryer summers, conditions that make for bigger, faster, and more intensely burning fires which are more difficult to fight and require more resources to do so.

“If we don’t get some rain this spring, expect the worst,” Flock said.

For a free property assessment call District 3 at 509-235-6645.

Lee Hughes can be reached at lee@cheneyfreepress.com.