Fire Eyes:  Interview with a WUI Home
  
Narrator:  More and more, Americans are building homes in the Wildland-Urban Interface  the zone where homes are intermixed with wildland vegetation.  

One study estimates that 44 million homes in the Lower 48 states are located in areas that meet or intermingle with wildland vegetation.  

In the 1990s, 1.7 million new homes were built in the wildland-urban interface in California, Oregon and Washington alone, bringing the total of homes contained in the Wildland-Urban Interface in these three states to nearly 7 million.  

The story is similar in the Rocky Mountain States of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado.  In these four states during the same decade, the rate at which homes were being built in the Wildland-Urban Interface accelerated almost 23%.

Given these trends, it makes sense for homeowners in the Wildland-Urban Interface to look at their homes through fire eyes.  

In other words, homeowners need to look at their homes and assess them for how well they would withstand a brush or forest fire.  

To explore this topic, we interviewed an average Wildland-Urban Interface home.
  
USFA:  Good morning.  This is the first time weve ever interviewed a home before.  How are you doing today?
  
W-UI Home:  Pretty good.  Its really nice out here in the country.  Summers here, and Im enjoying the shade from my pals, the trees.
  
USFA:  So tell me, how well prepared are you to deal with a wildfire in this area?
  
W-UI Home:  I think Im fairly well prepared.  My owner keeps nearby brush cleared away.  He keeps my gutters and roof valleys free of leaves and pine needles and last year, we finally got the firewood moved away from the side of the garage.  That wood was giving me ants.  I couldnt stand it.
  
USFA:  But the cedar shake roofing and the wooden deck with old wooden lawn furniture.?
  
W-UI Home:  Everyone knows you can set up a sprinkler on top of the house and wet down a shake roof.  Give me a break!  Just about all the other houses in this subdivision have shake roofs.  None of the others have burned, so Im not really worried.  Same goes for the deck.  Just wet it down and Im good to go.
  
USFA:  What if no one has time to set up a sprinkler on your roof and deck?  Or what happens if your water system loses pressure?
  
W-UI Home:  <pause>  Can we move on to the next question?
  
USFA:  Sure.  We noticed you live in the middle of a steep slope, and there is a ton of vegetation that can fuel a fire on the slope below you.  Does that concern you?
  
W-UI Home:  No, not really.  If a fire ever gets going around here, I just assume that firefighters will burn off that slope.  And even if they dont, its pretty much just grass and brush.  How hot could that possibly burn?
  
USFA:  Hotter than you think.  Anyway, you mentioned your friends, the shade trees.  We couldnt help but notice that most of your trees and shrubs are volatile species, meaning they can burn very fast like that ornamental pine over there and that oak tree.  Doesnt that make you think twice about enjoying their shade?
  
W-UI Home:  Volatile, huh?  I never looked at them that way before.  All I know is theyre shady, and that cuts down on my air conditioning bills in the summer.  But come to think of it, we keep things pretty green around the yard most of the time.  I doubt any of them could really catch fireexcept the few trees near the edge of the steep slope.  
  
USFA:  You might want to think twice about those shrubs right up against your siding too.  Those Junipers, they are notoriously hot-burning and go up like a blow-torch.
  
W-UI Home:  Hey, youre making me nervous.
  
USFA:  Sorry about that.  Okay, lets move on to another subject.  Has your owner developed a home escape plan?  Does your family know what to do if a wildfire is threatening this subdivision?
  
W-UI Home:  Ive heard them talk about that.  Weve been here for almost ten years now, and a few fires have burned in the hills around here.  I guess my folks would grab whatever is important to them and leave.  I think Id be alright, though.  We have really good firefighters in this area.
  
USFA:  We noticed that you are a little hard to see from the streetwith all the trees.  Plus, your mailbox with your address is mostly grown over with branches.  Are you going to do anything about that?
  
W-UI Home:  Look, youll have to talk to the owner about that.  All I can say is we like our privacy.  Our neighbors are nice, but we dont want them looking into our yard.  Why does that matter anyway?
  
USFA:  You mentioned firefighters, so I thought the question was relevant.  In order to assess a homes defensibility, keep track of it in the event of an evacuation, get engines into the property, and other similar reasons, firefighters need to be able to see the home.  Care to change your answer?
  
W-UI Home:  Wellsince you put it that way, maybe the owner does need to do some trimming. 
  
USFA:  That brings up another thing.  I noticed that the brush comes right up against the driveway leading up to you, and that some tree branches are hanging right over your driveway.  

Do you know how firefighters feel about those factors  from an ingress and egress point of view?  By the way, ingress and egress are important safety factors: the ability to quickly and safely get into and then out of here.

W-UI Home:  Look, firefighters are highly trained to take risks.  Besides, my owner thinks the branches draped over the driveway are cool.  Next question.
  
USFA:  <sighing>  I see.  Well, aside from your roofing then, I think you have a few other issues related to what experts call structural ignitability.  Have you considered asking a structure protection specialist to evaluate you? Check you out using fire eyes?
  
W-UI Home:  Issues?  Like what?
  
USFA:  Single pane windows, for example.  Double pane windows are more resistant to radiant heat, and they will keep your interior cooler.  

Another example is the wooden fence in your backyard.  It is directly attached to you, meaning fire would have an easy path right to you.  Also, I didnt look that closely, but it appears that your attic vents are not properly screened, 
which allows embers to enter your attic.  In addition   

W-UI Home:  OKAY, okay!  You made your point.  Ill speak to the owner.
  
USFA:  Well, thats about all the time I have for this interview.  Thank you for your candid answers, and I hope you will speak to your owner.  Its already fire season, you know.
  
W-UI Home:  Actually, I should thank you!  I can see now we have a lot of work to do.   

Narrator:  For more information on ways to protect your home from the risk of a wildland fire, please visit www.firewise.org.