Understanding and Preventing the Spread of Wildfire
Robert Seidler with Seidler Productions and associate Lee Berger returned from a summer of film work on wildfire prevention in Idaho and Montana and would like to share some insights with friends and neighbors in Wakulla and the surrounding areas.
First of all Wildfire is not just something that occurs out west. Those of us in Wakulla County live on the wild side with over 70% of the county that is wild land under Federal Land management. It’s a prime location for wildfire, particularly as our summers get hotter and drier.
A large fire reacts like a living and breathing creature, taking in air and giving back powerful heat. It’s an irresistible force with the potential to convert just about everything we own and love to carbon and other basic elements. Wild fires are inevitable. It’s healthy for habitats to burn. Fire burns excess fuels and stimulate ecosystems to seed and thrive. The question is when and how wild, and do our structures have to burn as well?
Prescribed burning is the primary tool for maintaining the health and safety of natural systems. Before humans settled in this area nature prescribed the fire. Today it’s the job of fire experts. Actually North Florida has developed most of the prescribed fire models for the rest of the country. This is all thanks to the USFS and Tall Timbers Research Station in Thomasville/Tallahassee where fire is the main tool for research on habitat preservation and natural ecosystem management.
Since fire doesn’t pay attention to our needs, we must pay attention to its needs. There are some points we need to know and understand. Well over 100 years ago we began building roads, ranches, and farms… civilizing the uncivilized. Consequently we unwittingly suppressed the natural cycle of fire. We stopped its path with “humanized” fire-safe places that don’t burn. At one time a lightning strike might ignite a wild fire that would burn till the fuel (burnable materials such as leaves and fallen branches) ran out or until it hit an already burnt area with no new fuels left to burn. Back then fire crossed state lines and country borders every year and everyplace where fuels existed.
Until recently suppression has left the fuels (decaying plant materials and green, alive ones too) to acuminate to such levels that when they do burn they burn big, causing recent MEGA Fires in North Florida, California, and Idaho. These are firestorms that greedily consume all fuels. Add a dry hot wind and the MEGA Fires are unstoppable.
Fortunately on Federal Lands, land managers have implemented prescribed burning every few years. Not so fortunate are unlucky private landowners whose properties have not burnt for many, many years. These are lands that should have burnt every two to five years. These are neighborhoods with the dense trees and ample ground cover. Neighborhoods with planted pines so dense you almost can’t walk through them. Add longer, hotter summers, lower humidity and more fuels and you get more fires, more often.
The truth is that this is something we can adjust to and plan for, but it has to start with us. Every resident cannot have a fireman or fire truck at their home when the fires come. We must become individually accountable for our own wild fire safety. Here are a few tips:
Create a defensible space around your home and other buildings. This primarily involves removing flammable materials that are adjacent to structures, including trees, shrubs, and even firewood. Keep in mind that in Florida green burns and some green such as Palmettos burn hotter than dried brown materials. A 50 to 100 foot defensible space around your home and other buildings is a good start. If you search FireWise on the Internet you will find many resources.
Fire can get to your home in two main ways: on the ground and through the air. Fire can crawl to your home by burning grass, leaves and other combustibles. Embers or firebrands fly through the air ahead of the fire. Defensible space helps with the ground fire, but airborne fire is really your front line in the battle. Millions of charcoal like embers land and simmer on a structure, often for hours after the main fire passes. These firebrands slowly cook and set fire to roofing, porches, and other flammable materials and surfaces around the home. If not sealed, firebrands will enter through your eaves and set your attic on fire. Metal roofs help, concrete siding helps too. The “green grass” of prevention along with a dependable water source to quiet the embers are two of the best measures to stop the burning.
We have a demo video on the causes of ignition of a structure up on YouTube at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Dq6wy_tffpg or search for “Radiant Heat Versus Firebrands.” It’s only three-minutes and chock full of facts. It tells the truth about fire prevention and is one of the first products we’ve developed to inform and educate about wide fire prevention. Each month we will be posting other segments, culminating in a 15-part DVD available nationally. All of the segments will be available on YouTube and the other web sites in January 2008. You know, over the past 50 years Smokey Bear has symbolized fire suppression, but we really can’t prevent forest fires. They’re inevitable but survivable. I look forward to assisting others with understanding the truth about fire and fire prevention.
Thank you for your time and involvement.
Robert Seidler
Seidler Productions Sopchoppy
(Pictured above: Robert Seidler at work in White Bird, Idaho)
This letter originally published on October 31, 2007.
Community 
Prescribed burning is the primary tool for maintaining the health and safety of natural systems. Before humans settled in this area nature prescribed the fire. Today it’s the job of fire experts. Actually North Florida has developed most of the prescribed fire models for the rest of the country. This is all thanks to the USFS and Tall Timbers Research Station in Thomasville/Tallahassee where fire is the main tool for research on habitat preservation and natural ecosystem management.
