House burning

This is just a thought, I don't know if it's feasible. Re the houses catching fire in California. Do these houses have mains water ? Would it be possible to surround the House with a system of water pipes, that in the event of a fire approaching the property the water could be turned on to provide a wall of "Mist" witch could be enough to prevent the fire from taking hold on that House ? One other thing, why do all these houses have to be built of Wood ? Surely Brick would provide more protection ?

I might be talking crap, what do you think ?

There are several problems inherent to those particular areas in California :

They are in the middle of a drought;  with conditions ripe for these kinds of wildfires;

They like to build their houses with pine frames (many builders down here do as well ==  madness !);  then they put those stupid shithouse shingle and tarpaper roofs on them that aren't exactly suitable for that location ('colourbond' steel or clay tiles would be much better..);

And then their local councils exacerbate the situation by allowing  residents to have non-native eucalypts and fire-prone pines growing right up to and among those homes (it's been like that for more than half a century, so we probably won't see that changing any time soon..);

Over recent years, California's droughts have been worsened by having farms and communities upstream "stealing" water --  largely due to the sad historical fact that water has always been considered "a God-given 'right'" --  and they simply don't have the regulations, access licences, and restrictions that many other countries use to conserve water supplies..

Another problem experienced in those areas is that you find a lot of wealthy residents "wanting to do their own thing", --  and willing to fight local authorities when they threaten to either bring in new regulations or restrict certain activities  --  the same situation occurred after bad fires down near Canberra a few years ago, where some crazy people were deliberately building their homes in near pine plantations.

even if water was available, often part of the issue is power gets cut by fires taking out power lines turning off the pumps.

if you solved those issues (water tanks & diesel generator), it would only stop 'spot fires'. which if you're lucky and, as wolf said, have a house of suitable materials might be enough for the fire front to pass around your house with little damage. there is a bunch of factors, some we can control some we can't. we can minimize risk by removing 'fuel' sources like stacked timbre, dry leaves/plants or gas bottles etc from near the house, but then there are things like wind direction and speed which are just luck.

But if your house is really in the path of a 'fire storm' nothing is going to help. Pack up what you can (hopefully you had warning to prepare your things to leave in a hurry) and flee

Surely they don't use wooden shingles and other combustable materials for roofing ??

nicko wrote:Surely they don't use wooden shingles and other combustable materials for roofing ??

Surely you're not questioning how dumb Americans are ???

nicko wrote:This is just a thought, I don't know if it's feasible.    Re the houses catching fire in California.  Do these houses have mains water ?   Would it be possible to surround the House with a system of water pipes, that in the event of a fire approaching the property the water could be turned on to provide a wall of "Mist" witch could be enough to prevent the fire from taking hold on that House ?   One other thing, why do all these houses have to be built of Wood ?  Surely Brick would provide more protection ?

      I might be talking crap,  what do you think ?

I think it's a good idea.  It would take more than mist, but would there be enough water?

The Rocky Mountains are a huge continental divide, sending watershed both east and west, from Montana to Texas.  On the eastern slope is a bowl, beginning in Colorado with the Platte River system, feeding into the Missouri River, and thence into the Mississippi River.  To the east, on this bowl, there is the huge Ohio River watershed system which drains from West Virginia and Pennsylvania into the Mississippi River just south of Illinois.  This entire bowl drains into the Gulf of Mexico, making New Orleans the second largest port city in the world (to Amsterdam).

On the western slope of this continental divide there is only the Colorado River, and that dries up before it reaches the Sea of Cortez.  That is why there is all this dry chaparral, which feeds these fires.

The problem isn't the fires...it's the urban interface.  The fires are a natural part of the ecosystem.  You should see the beautiful fields and meadows the next year after one of these fires.  The fires are nature's vacuum cleaner, cleaning out all the debris.  It's just that we also want the same land for permanent housing, and nature sees the homes as just more debris.

As to why homes are build of wood?  Wood is more available today than brick...at least away from the urban centers of the east.  The reason is construction cost.  Also...bricks collapse on you in an earthquake?

For more discussion on wood homes, check this site: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AwrXoCAz1OpbeigAkQVPmolQ;_ylu=X3oDMTEybzcwcjkyBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwM3BHZ0aWQDQjI1NTdfMQRzZWMDc3I-?qid=20110411081842AAk80lZ

nicko wrote:Surely they don't use wooden shingles and other combustable materials for roofing ??

No. They use mostly clay tiles, usually red, of the sort you see in the eastern Mediterranean, or modern fireproof materials.

Original Quill wrote:

nicko wrote:This is just a thought, I don't know if it's feasible.    Re the houses catching fire in California.  Do these houses have mains water ?   Would it be possible to surround the House with a system of water pipes, that in the event of a fire approaching the property the water could be turned on to provide a wall of "Mist" witch could be enough to prevent the fire from taking hold on that House ?   One other thing, why do all these houses have to be built of Wood ?  Surely Brick would provide more protection ?

      I might be talking crap,  what do you think ?

I think it's a good idea.  It would take more than mist, but would there be enough water?

The Rocky Mountains are a huge continental divide, sending watershed both east and west, from Montana to Texas.  On the eastern slope is a bowl, beginning in Colorado with the Platte River system, feeding into the Missouri River, and thence into the Mississippi River.  To the east, on this bowl, there is the huge Ohio River watershed system which drains from West Virginia and Pennsylvania into the Mississippi River just south of Illinois.  This entire bowl drains into the Gulf of Mexico, making New Orleans the second largest port city in the world (to Amsterdam).

On the western slope of this continental divide there is only the Colorado River, and that dries up before it reaches the Sea of Cortez.  That is why there is all this dry chaparral, which feeds these fires.

The problem isn't the fires...it's the urban interface.  The fires are a natural part of the ecosystem.  You should see the beautiful fields and meadows the next year after one of these fires.  The fires are nature's vacuum cleaner, cleaning out all the debris.  It's just that we also want the same land for permanent housing, and nature sees the homes as just more debris.

As to why homes are build of wood?  Wood is more available today than brick...at least away from the urban centers of the east.  The reason is construction cost.  Also...bricks collapse on you in an earthquake?

For more discussion on wood homes, check this site: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AwrXoCAz1OpbeigAkQVPmolQ;_ylu=X3oDMTEybzcwcjkyBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwM3BHZ0aWQDQjI1NTdfMQRzZWMDc3I-?qid=20110411081842AAk80lZ

Awful !! 
Is your area affected, Q ?

Jules wrote:Awful !!
Is your area affected, Q ?

Fires?  It was worse last year with the Tubbs fire.  Santa Rosa is about 35-40 miles north.  The Paradise fire, going on now, is about 200-miles north. Climate change may be a contributing factor, hence increasing frequency of fires.

As far as the watershed of the continental US, it's been that way forever.  Only the population has moved.  As I say, it's the urban interface that is the problem.