Let’s End the War on Fire
By Darin Bue
Introducing the newly formed Eastern Regional Firewise Coalition, which was launched in November 2023 as an all-volunteer organization that works with, but is not related to, the regional Fire Safe Councils in Nevada and California. Our goal is to assist with the dissemination of information, and to facilitate communication about the Fire Safe and Firewise programs.
The main goal of the ERFWC is to foster collaboration around fire adaptivity between communities east of the Pacific Crest. Why? Because neither property boundaries, borders, agency jurisdictions, nor laws are recognized by fire. What has become apparent now is that a civilization that disregards the norms of fire suffers.
The comfort of having fire insurance in fire-prone regions is becoming a luxury that few can afford, if they can get it at all, because providing a do-over for people unfortunate enough to lose their belongings in a fire has simply become unprofitable for insurance companies in the face of inevitable, widespread, catastrophic fire. As the wildland urban interface has expanded and forests have continued to produce and accumulate woody fuels, betting that a largely risk-avoidant pool of insured will carry the claims of the rest has become a very bad bet for insurance companies. That could mean that if we don’t collaborate to become more fire resilient, many of us will lose everything to a fire. If we don’t adapt our land management practices around the norms of fire, we could also lose the green forests that draw people to this region.
What might collaborative fire adaptivity look like? I suggest that there are three important components: reducing exposure, minimizing risk, and becoming an active member of a community composed of neighbors, agency partners, nonprofits, educators, and any other resource for wisdom and support that exists in the community.
The National Fire Protection Association Standard of Firewise provides concrete, easily applicable protocols for minimizing the risk of exposure to fire. Wind driven embers are by far the most likely cause of a house fire. Adopting these protocols can greatly reduce the chances of house ignition if exposed to fire. The Truckee Fire Department supports communities in achieving Firewise status and provides green waste disposal resources for Firewise communities.
Reducing exposure so that insurance companies are willing to insure extends beyond creating defensible space. We need a collaborative, regional approach if we are to establish a standard that promotes forest health and provides measurable safety from wildfire. Forest scale treatments as well as residential scale defensible space will be required. The masticating, thinning, and chipping work being done by Gray’s Crossing along either side of Highway 89 just north of Truckee is an example of forest scale treatment that can measurably suppress the spread of fire. The Carnelian Woods pile burning project is another. The U.S. Forest Service, Truckee Fire, Cal Fire, and North Lake Tahoe Fire are all engaged in forest scale fuels treatments, some of which consist of the reintroduction of fire as a long-term maintenance tool.
For training and information on general forest health including residential scale prescribed burning, contact the resource conservation districts of either Nevada or Placer counties.
Please consider becoming acquainted with the Eastern Regional Coalition of Firewise communities and helping to create a regional voice and an adaptive approach to fire resiliency. Our informal monthly meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month at the Truckee Council Chambers. Everyone is welcome. Bring your ideas, resources, questions, insights, and help us to build a coalition that promotes appropriate responses to the norms of fire and builds a relationship with fire that ends the need to be at war with it.
~ Darin Bue, a coordinator at the ERFWC, grew up in Floriston and the Carson Range when the Donner Ridge Fire was still fresh in the minds of the area’s inhabitants. He was evacuated in the face of the 2001 Martis Fire. His adult passion is helping to interrupt the West’s infinite doom-loops of catastrophic fires.
