E-Mail 'Our Wildfire Evacuation, Part 3, by SoCal9mm' To A Friend

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1. After the Columbia Gorge fire in 2017, I discovered a lot of charred debris in our roof gutters, leaves and fir needles are excellent tinder, clean your gutters prior to fire season! Wind blown embers can travel up to five miles! Social media and texting will often work when landlines are overloaded resulting in a loss or delay of service. Texting helps to ensure that landlines will be open for folks needing to contact emergency services.

2. Socal,

   have you considered perhaps rain catchment or well to a gravity fed cistern to have your own pressurized fire fighting water supply? would also metal roof help in your area? can you doze the treeline to push back or create firebreak etc?

   hope all is well,looking forward to next installation in your series,

   1. Hi SOG – I’d love to have a metal roof – only 1 house around here has one, and it survived while most of the houses around it were lost. Many of the burned houses are being rebuilt right now and I’m curious to see if more people will opt for metal roofs… However, during this fire, from what I’ve heard, many of the houses burned due to embers getting into the attics thru the gable vents.

      The winds were so strong, that embers were everywhere, and since the houses in these neighborhoods were 40-50 years old, many of the vent screens were in poor condition and allowed entry to embers that probably should have been kept out. I know my vents were not great, and we fixed them after seeing their condition during our post-fire attic cleaning.

3. Has anyone considered building an underground shelter for emergency storage?

   1. Yes, I have. Since the fire, I’ve toyed with the idea of a small underground & fire-resistant “bunker” for ammo. I’ve found some ideas online, but (unfortunately) nothing that made me excited enough to say “gotta have it!”

      1. https://www.atlassurvivalshelters.com/fire-shelters/

         fire shelters for belongings, rifles ammo important gear and documents etc..

   2. Rawles in his book, ~How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It~ speaks about storage underground. = Food requires a durable watertight and vermin proof system. Ammunition and anything else requires similar durability. … SurvivalBlog has plenty of articles about underground storage in its archives.

      SoCal9mm in his excellent series of articles described the real possibility of both theft from looters, and the complete destruction of his home by the fire.

      I live on a River-Plain, that would flood during a rainy winter, except for a dam up river, and all the river levees.
      …. It’s hot and dry in the summertime and rains during the winter. Swimming pools have to be kept filled water during the winter. = They might ‘float’ up out of the ground, with the higher water table.
      ….. Any storage underground (around here) would have to be, at least chock >full, to prevent the water table from pushing the container upwards. While the container might not float up out of the ground, the lifting effect might make the location noticeable.

4. This series of documented events is excellent.
   I to am looking forward to the next two installments

5. Look into finding old freezers. If u can find a remote spot u can bury it. These keep water out and are insulated as long as u keep any holes plugged. I plan on opening mine up later this summer and check moisture content. I use ammo cans anyway for double protection and large pvc pipe for firearms.

6. SoCal9mm, You walking around and “policing up the area”, that is putting out the stumps still burning make you my choice for a neighbor. I would hope I had the same community-minded approach following any similar event in my life.

   I call that walking the talk.

   Carry on

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