Wildfires...Now one in Corona

[ChrisLynnet]

Oh my gosh, that was amazing. You know, sometimes those fires shift direction and move so fast that there is no way to close a freeway on time. My best friend was confronted by a sudden wall of fire on the 15/215 during 2003 when Old Fire/Grand Prix met in the middle! The only thing she could do was gun the engine and ram through it. She came out O.K., but boy was she shaken up. I know I would be.

[Chuck]

We were able to return my mother in law today.  We drove around her streets and found some interesting sights.  Those plastic white fences melt

 



This RV lot is just around the corner from her house.  This used to be a 5th Wheel



Just around the corner this one lone house caught fire





At our Fire Safe Council meeting last night Cal Fire was speaking about Ember Intrusion and how the problem is amplified by high winds.  Attic vents are areas for ember intrusion.  If your vent screen allows a pencil to be inserted, it's easy for embers to enter, especially by high winds.  In this case the fire from the RV area (and the Wildfire itself) most likely entered via the two pictured vents directly facing the high wind and RV Fire.  Whether it entered the attic area, or the garage area (lower vent), it probably started that way.  If the embers entered the garage and they had what they thought was protected flammable items, boom!  We all need to focus on these weak areas where embers can easily enter our homes.  And, your garage might not be as safe as you thought.  Be careful what your store and where you store it.   

     

garage vent

 

I invite some of our agency friends to comment on the above.....   

[Tumblebush]

Wow! glad your mother in law is safe and sound and thanks for keeping us posted.

About  garage and crawl space vents....they make ones that you can shut completely when you need to, we have them installed around our house. We even made special flaps for the attic vent so if we need to close them down, which we've had to in the past.


garage vent

 



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[Tumblebush]

These are the vents we use. Just walk around the outside of the house...pull the little bar and they are closed.

[lagomorphmom]

Tumblebush, do you have a brand name and/or store if it's a national/online store?

[Tumblebush]

Tumblebush, do you have a brand name and/or store if it's a national/online store?

<as she catches her breath and warms her fingers up after running outside to look>

All that is stamped on them is Net Free Zone and then the diameters, but we bought them at a store called Ziggy's that's here in WA.. I'm sure Mountain Hardware might even be able to order them since they are a Do It Center.

[Tumblebush]

Just looked....you can order them from Mountain Hardware

They are called Foundation Vents

<as she catches her breath and warms her fingers up after running outside to look>

All that is stamped on them is Net Free Zone and then the diameters, but we bought them at a store called Ziggy's that's here in WA.. I'm sure Mountain Hardware might even be able to order them since they are a Do It Center.

[Wrightwood]

[SkierBob]

[Tumblebush]

Amazing video..  Those houses had no 100ft high Pine Trees around them.   There would be no stopping a fire like that in WW. It would burn the community to the ground, fire proof attic vents or not.   It's down right scary to think about.

Impressive video

yupper..like I said before, high winds like that...you are at the mercy of Mother Nature. Unless you're living in a bomb shelter.

I lived in the midwest and have seen homes wiped out by grass fires and no trees for miles.

[Tumblebush]

I'm just glad we had closing vents a few years back...

We didn't have gail force winds but they were strong enough to blow hot embers into our field and around our house.

Heck, we even close them off when we burn our slash piles around the house. All it takes is one little ember to make it in.

[Wrightwood]

[K9luvr]

Yep--that's why we call 'em "catastrophic converters"