By Romy Carver for the Tillamook County Pioneer
It may seem strange to think about wildfires since we’re just finally getting some sunny (and warm) weather but there’s no better time than now to prepare for wildfires. May is Wildfire Awareness Month, and the Tillamook Forest Center hosted a Wildfire Community Preparedness Day today from 11-3. As a Pike Road Fire evacuee from 2020, I won’t forget the trauma and stress of leaving my home with my family and pets in the middle of the night with nothing but what I could grab at short notice.
That fire changed the way I think about things. I used to think I was prepared. After all, I’m far enough out of the tsunami zone that I wasn’t worried about having to leave my home. I had first aid and food supplies, and other provisions and was prepared to hunker down. What I wasn’t prepared for was a wildfire, and evacuating. It was a wake-up call. Planning for a disaster during an actual disaster doesn’t work very well, as if that needs to be said.
Today’s fun event taught how to protect our homes in a wildfire. There’s no foolproof way to ensure that, but there are steps we can take. There were tables with information, including handouts about wildfire information and fire-resistant plants for home landscapes, as well as the gorgeous Tillamook Burn Country book, which is a pictorial history of the Tillamook Burn. Smokey Bear was in attendance for photo ops. Participants colored and assembled paper houses, which we put to the test in a live burn table demonstration. Proximity of the houses to dry vegetation determined which houses survived and which ones didn’t.
This was a family friendly event, and the kids had as much fun as the adults. We all gathered around for the burn table demonstration and observed how, even in the rain, some of the paper houses burned quite quickly. This has a lot to do with creating “defensible space” around homes, free of vegetation, as well as ensuring that there is no vegetation downhill from the house, as fires burn upward.
Over 80% of wildfires last year were caused by humans, and preventing them in the first place is always best. The Oregon Department of Forestry is sharing information about wildfire prevention throughout this month. To learn more about wildfire prevention, visit Keep Oregon Green at www.keeporegongreen.org and the Oregon Department of Forestry at www.oregon.gov/odf.
Let’s all have a safe fire season this year!