NTCFSC Lecture Series #2: Hardening Your Home, May 16

In the first of four lectures sponsored by the North Topanga Canyon Fire Safe Council (NTCFSC) series, “Wildfire Risk in our Unique Ecosystem,” Kathryn Kirkpatrick and Robert Taylor from the National Park Service, presented some amazing things about the ecology of the Santa Monica Mountains, fire behavior and what we can do to become a more fire-adapted community.

Kirkpatrick and Taylor addressed issues of:

• The uniqueness of our Mediterranean ecosystem.

• The structure of our geography, rain, temperature and wind patterns and what they mean to fire risk.

• The characteristics of different fuel loads and how they affect fire behavior.

• The fire triangle (geography, weather and fuel) and the reality that we can only influence fuel.

•The role of our homes as fuel for wildfires.

The next lecture, “Preemptive Strategies to Lessen the Impact of Wildfire in Our Community,” is on Wednesday, May 16, at 7 p.m., in the Topanga Library Community Room.

Dr. Stephen Quarles from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety will talk about how to create a defensible home.

Starting from the home out, he will explain how a “hardened” home is less vulnerable to embers from a wildfire.

He will discuss how “defensible space” works by using landscaping to create an area around your home that might prevent the flames from reaching it and reduces the amount of radiant heat surrounding it.

This presentation will provide an understanding of the vulnerabilities of buildings to wildfire exposure and provide options to help your home survive when a wildfire threatens.

For more information: ntcfsc.org, firesafe@ntcfsc.org.