How Can I Prevent Wildfires?

Fireworks, tow chains, even a lawnmower can all start fires.

Sierra asked me to write a post for this site. I said no, because August is the busiest month for fighting fires, and she said fine, then just write down what you already say out loud every August. So here it is.

I’m on the volunteer fire brigade out here on the edge of the Dryad forest. I did equipment and fundraising for the fire brigade starting at sixteen, and I’ve been going out with the crews since I turned eighteen. In all that time I have been on exactly zero calls that started with a villain.

That’s the part people get wrong. About 85 percent of wildfires in this country are started by people,¹ and here in Washington it’s the same number—roughly 85 percent of the fires we get every year are human-caused, and most of them were avoidable.² Not arson. Not a movie. Somebody was tired, or in a hurry, or ninety percent sure it was fine.

So this is the list. It isn’t about awareness. It’s about your hands.

Your campfire is not out

I’m putting this first because it’s the one I’ve stood over the most.

Smokey Bear says drown, stir, drown, feel—pour water until the hissing stops, stir the ashes and dirt together with a shovel, add more water, then hold the back of your hand over it.³ Not near it. Over it.

If it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to leave.

Dirt alone does not count. Burying a fire in dirt insulates the coals, and I have personally dug live embers out of a fire ring the morning after somebody buried it and drove home feeling responsible.

Your car is a spark machine

This one nobody thinks about, and it’s the one that gets my crew out of bed.

• Tow chains. A chain dragging on pavement throws a rooster tail of sparks straight into the dry grass on the shoulder. Secure them so they don’t touch the road.⁴
• Where you park. Your exhaust system runs hot enough to light dry grass from underneath. Park on gravel or dirt. That’s it—that’s the whole fix.
• Mowing and power tools. A mower blade hitting a rock is a spark. So is a grinder. Mow before 10 a.m., not on a hot windy afternoon, and don’t run power tools next to cured grass in August.⁴

None of that is heroic. That’s my point.

Fireworks

In September 2017 a fifteen-year-old kid tossed fireworks into a ravine in the Columbia River Gorge. The Eagle Creek Fire burned about 48,000 acres. A judge ordered him to pay $36.6 million in restitution.⁵

He wasn’t evil. He was fifteen, on a trail, with friends, on a dry day. That’s the entire distance between him and you.

Target shooting

If you shoot on public land, know that the bullet itself can start it. Solid copper and steel-core rounds are the worst for ignition, and exploding targets are right behind them, which is why they get banned outright in fire season on a lot of BLM ground.⁶ Read the restrictions for where you’re standing before you go.

What the crew actually wishes you knew

We put the flames out in an afternoon. Then we’re there the next day, and sometimes the day after, on our knees, working a cold trail with hand tools, feeling for heat inch by inch. That’s mop-up. It’s the boring part and it’s most of the job, and every hour of it exists because somebody didn’t spend ten minutes.

I’m a project manager by temperament. Ask anybody. I like a checklist and I like being right about it, and I have never once found a shortcut in this that was worth it.

My sister Marisa is twelve. When we drive up past the ridge in August, she counts the brown patches on the hillside and asks me which ones were caused by people. Most of them, is the answer. Almost all of them.

That’s the bad news and it’s also the good news, because the number nobody starts on purpose is the number we can actually take back.

Don’t panic. Just drown it, stir it, and feel it before you walk away.

Klifal, Dear reader and Tsitwash for Reading!

Note: Klifal and Tsitwash are words in Dryadic. Klifal means “Hello” and Tsitwash means “Thanks.”

I hope you enjoyed this article! If you liked my unique perspective, you’ll love reading my full story in the novel Digital Dryad by Jennifer Kyrnin. Digital Dryad is available where all books are sold, in print and ebook formats.

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Sincerely, Sierra