If You Choose to Leave Early. . .Leave Responsibly

Most people live in Topanga because they heard of its quietness, community feeling, safety and natural beauty. Perhaps wildfire dangers were not high on your list of concerns when you moved here. But those dangers are part of the package, just as much as the owl calls off your deck, or the sight of a bobcat disappearing around the corner of your house.

What you do in an emergency affects not only yourself and your family but also your neighbors and the wider circle of people unknown to you who you are expecting to come to your aid.

There are many reasons why you might elect to throw a few key possessions and your family into a car and get out at the first sign of a wildfire. But that cannot excuse you for not making adequate preparations to ensure your home does not become the source of unnecessary danger or loss to others. Preparation for emergencies in Topanga is part of the dues to be paid along with your real estate taxes and putting up with traffic on Pacific Coast Highway.

Your obligation starts with taking into account all the members of your family and their caregivers. We would not like it said of any of our neighbors that they got out while leaving their baby-sitters to fend for themselves. Preparations to evacuate quickly must include everyone.

Evacuation itself is a stressful venture. Most of our roads are steep and winding. Under conditions of poor visibility because of weather, time of day or smoke, and when most drivers are going to be distracted and operating under stress, the possibility of accidents blocking roads and trapping others may become unacceptably high.

Even on Topanga Canyon Boulevard (TCB) there are many places where curves in the road or people ignoring stop signs could cause road-blocking accidents. Three years of data on accidents along TCB suggests that, even in normal times, the three miles off Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) are disproportionately dangerous. Almost 40% of all the accidents that happen along the 11-mile Topanga Canyon segment of TCB happen in those three miles. (Data compiled from Caltrans records for the years mid-1996 to mid-1999.)

Since it is true on both north- and south-bound sides of the road, these accidents are not caused by people speeding up in relief as they get off PCH. It is hard to explain, because that stretch of road seems similar to any other part. The statistics on cause show no trend. So, we should take this as a warning. Accidents happen easily under unusual conditions.

A communications plan is essential if you leave. The purpose of the plan is to ensure that everyone with a reason to know of your movements as a result of the emergency has a way of keeping in touch with you.

First, notify a few key people that you are leaving. These include a neighbor who may be staying, the T-CEP Hotline, and a friend or relative living outside the Canyon who will act as your point of contact, and the further from the Canyon the better, as their telephone links are less likely to be affected.

Then, after you have arrived at a safe place, notify all those who may be concerned about your safety that you are safe and that from now on they should only contact the designated point of contact for information about you.

Then for the duration of the emergency deal only with your point of contact as often as need be, but at least once a day.

There may be a few people, such as someone at work, your doctor, caregivers, etc., with whom you need frequent personal contact, to whom you may confide your local telephone.

Do not rely on cell phones or the normal telephone network-or anything that relies on the normal network such as fax. The load on all these systems in the first few days, at least, may be overwhelming. No news is definitely NOT good news during and after an emergency. You want news of your safety to be available to everyone as soon as possible.

Even the cell phone system relies on electricity to power its transmitters along TCB. Telephone poles burn up and fall over. Transformers are destroyed by the heat. The normal modes of communication cannot be relied upon in a wildfire emergency. One purpose of your emergency plan is to give reassurance and confidence that, despite any lack of communication, your family and local institutions will know how to behave safely when communication is not possible.

Firefighters, Sheriff's deputies and police officers are trained to deal with emergencies and are expected to accept a much higher level of risk in so doing. They are not expected to risk their own lives, however, especially if imminent threat to life is not involved--which is to say that no one is expected to risk their lives in defense of property.

If you expect the professionals to defend your home against a wildfire, you owe it to them to give them something to work with. It means first that brush clearance will have been done to the satisfaction of the inspectors who make the rounds every May and June. It also means that a 30-foot defensible space-actually it might better be called a working space-will have been cleared all around the house. This 30-foot space is based on experience--it is not arbitrary.

Figure 17 (in the "Evacuating" booklet) shows the increase in survivability of structures with the distance between the structure and vegetation. It shows that a structure with a 30-foot space is eight times more likely to survive than one that has no space between its walls and flammable vegetation. This is based on studies following actual fires, and holds even if no other action to defend the structures is taken.

The difference between the situation depicted in Figure10 (in the "Evacuating" booklet) as compared to Figure 17 (in the "Evacuating" booklet) is attributable to differences in the fires studied, the times of the fires, firefighting resources available and the extent to which homeowners were available to defend their homes. Your comparison is a cautionary exercise.

If you leave early, leave your home in as firesafe a condition as possible. Beyond the brush being cleared, this means attention to vents, heat traps, all windows and doors closed but not locked, etc. At least your home will not present an unnecessary danger to your neighbors and it would be available as a shelter for firefighters if needed.

o If you plan to stay, evacuate all pets and all family members not essential to protecting the home.

o Be properly dressed to survive the fire. Cotton and wool fabrics are preferable to synthetics. Wear long pants and boots and carry with you for protection a long-sleeved shirt or jacket, gloves, a handkerchief to shield the face, water to wet it, and goggles (for smoke protection only, not for use close to the fire).

o Remove combustible items around the house. This includes lawn and pool-side furniture, umbrellas, and tarp coverings. If they catch fire, the added heat could ignite your house.

o Close outside attic, eave and basement vents. This will eliminate the possibility of sparks being blown into hidden areas within the house. Close storm shutters.

o Place large plastic trash cans or bucket around the outside of the house and fill them with water. Soak burlap sacks, small rugs, large rags. They can be helpful in beating out burning embers or small fires. Inside the house fill bathtubs, sinks, and other containers with water. Toilet tanks and water heaters are an important water reservoir.

o Locate garden hoses so they will reach any place on the house. Use spray-gun type nozzle, adjusted to spray.

o If you have portable gasoline-powered pumps to take water from a swimming pool or tank, make sure they are operating and in place.

o Place a ladder against the roof of the house on the side opposite the approaching fire. If you have a combustible roof, wet it down. Do not waste water. Waste can drain the entire water system quickly.

o Back your car into the garage and roll up the windows. Disconnect the automatic door opener (in case of power failure you could not remove the car). Close all garage doors. Leave a key in the ignition.

o Place valuable papers and mementos in the car for quick departure if necessary. Any pets still with you should also be put in the car.

o Close windows and doors of the house to prevent sparks from blowing inside. Close all doors inside the house to prevent drafts. Open the damper on your fireplace to help stabilize outside-inside pressure, but close the fireplace screen so sparks will not ignite the room. Turn on a light in each room to make the house more visible in heavy smoke (for the benefit of firefighters who may be in the area).

o Turn off all pilot lights.

o If you have time, take down your drapes and curtains. Close all Venetian blinds or fire-resistive window coverings to reduce the amount of heat radiating into your home. This gives added safety in case the windows give way because of heat or wind.

o As the fire-front approaches, go inside the house. Stay calm, you are in control of the situation. After the fire passes, check the roof immediately. Extinguish any sparks or embers. Then check any interior enclosed spaces for hidden burning sparks. If you have a fire, call the Fire Department and then get neighbors to help fight it until the fire units arrive. The water you stored before will come in handy now. For several hours after the fire, recheck for smoke and sparks throughout the house.

o In a major conflagration, fire protection agencies will probably not have enough equipment and manpower to be at every home. You cannot depend totally on their help. One of the firefighter's principal responsibilities is to stop the spread of fire from house to house. Therefore, if one home is on fire, firefighters might have to pass it by to save another in the path of the fire. Your careful planning and action during a fire can save your home. Be prepared. Talk with your neighbors to see what resources you have. Ask your fire or forestry personnel for professional advice and assistance.

(Source: Klaus Radtke, Living More Safely in the Chaparral-Urban Interface.)