Wildfire risk is often dismissed in Texas as something that residents of rural areas of California have to worry about, but that’s just not the case.
Notice the experts don’t say “forest fires” anymore. That’s because these rapidly-spreading blazes are happening in the wildland/urban interface — your neighborhoods.
More than 11,000 acres of Texas land are currently burning in Taylor County near Abilene. Wildfires can take weeks to contain. Unlike structure fires, the process can involve building a “fire break” around the blaze with bulldozers and dropping retardant from an air tanker in the sky.
“While it makes us feel safer to think that wildfires only happen far away from where we are living and our cities, we know that most wildfires occur within 2 miles of a community,” said Kari Hines, Texas A&M Forest Service Firewise program coordinator. “This makes sense since people are the No. 1 cause of wildfires. Unlike some other disasters, we know that there are absolutely steps that individuals and communities can take to prepare. Often these steps mesh very well with regular home and yard maintenance.”
Check Your Policy
In 2011, much of the state caught fire during a record-setting drought. That year, the PK Complex in the Possum Kingdom Lake resort area of Palo Pinto, Stephens, and Young counties burned 126,734 acres and destroyed 168 homes. Texas A&M Forest Service officials point out, however, that in that same cluster — or complex — of wildfires, more than 1,200 homes were saved. That means the fire encroached on them, but due in some cases to smart planning, they were not destroyed. The Bastrop Complex Wildfire that year was the most destructive in state history, wiping out 1,673 homes and inflicting more than $325 million in insured property damage.
Now insurance companies in California are dropping homes, businesses, and farms in fire-prone regions, following $30 billion in losses over the last three wildfire seasons, according to Courthouse News Services.
Most Texas homeowners’ policies cover fire damage, but it’s important to know what your coverage includes, said Bruce Woods, mitigation and prevention department head at Texas A&M Forest Service.
“With recent price increases impacting building materials, it’s important that you review your coverage with your insurance provider to ensure that your home is not underinsured,” he said. “Should a person be impacted by the inability to obtain coverage, the state of Texas created the Texas FAIR Plan Association, which provides limited coverage for one- and two-family residential dwellings, condominium units, and manufactured housing that meet its underwriting standards.”
Here’s what you can do to protect your home.
Prevention And Mitigation
Texas A&M Forest Service — the premier agency for forestry and wildfire response in the state — has a whole department dedicated to education and wildfire prevention. This includes Smokey Bear visits to schools and events, cooperation with local fire departments, and prescribed burns to remove dead vegetation and reduce risk.
Resources are available to show homeowners how to use fire-resistant construction materials and implement fire-resistant landscaping.
“The most impactful work to reduce structure loss happens by preparing the structure itself and the first 5 feet around it,” Hines said. “We know that most homes burn due to embers — small pieces of burning material that fly ahead of the main fire. Embers build up around the home in the same places that leaf litter usually gathers and can also enter the house through openings such as vents. With the chances of embers gathering around your house and turning into bigger flames as well as the chance of them gathering on or in the structure, modifying landscaping directly around the house can greatly decrease the chance of structure loss.”
Keep it Low
The goal of wildfire preparedness on properties and around homes is to keep flames as low to the ground and to keep the wildfire as slow-moving as possible, Hines said.
“To that end, using non-combustible building materials both in the landscape directly around and on the structure is best,” Hines explained. “The landscape directly around the house should also contain very little combustible material.”
That includes items such as firewood, dead plant material both on the ground and in gutters, flammable mulch, highly-combustible vegetation, and wooden attachments such as decks, steps, trellises, and fences, the Firewise program coordinator added.
“Where removal of a plant or wooden attachments is not possible, the reduction of ladder fuels, the mid-story items that would take a surface fire higher off the ground, and maintenance, such as proper watering, is paramount,” Hines said.
