Looking to move here in the future, but concerned about wildfires (Medford: neighborhood, tornado)

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

People don't understand the danger of sprawl into rural areas, because Oregon has had land use planning since '83. If you want to see what sprinkling houses randomly in the country is like, look at the Camp fire in Paradise in 2018. 85 people dead.

Ask the residents of Talent and Phoenix how well it's working. BTW I am not an opponent of urban growth boundaries. I have posted many times that I think they are a good thing. But letting developers run amok building highly flammable houses wall to wall is not a good solution, as these fires prove. It's just more capitalist profits over people's health and safety.

[Podo944]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

I agree 100%. I think wild fires are a major health issue for all Americans regardless of where you live. And staying indoors is not a solution either. Last week I had all my windows and doors closed, and still had smoke pouring into my apartment. It was just about killing me. I was close to calling an ambulance to take me to the hospital. We must have good air quality. And no managing the forests as our anti-science leader proposes is not the answer either, other then to put out the fires.

How are you doing now? I have a mild asthma myself, so yeah, this stuff is no fun at all.
We live in an apartment across the river from Portland and the air quality has been rated Hazardous and even "Beyond Index". Very scary. There's no air conditioning here, so we have portables, but had to pull them because the window vents was allowing the outside nasty air to seep in, but once we did that, it seems like this apartment has fairly good insulation. So now I feel like we're in a space capsule! Life support still works so we have an air purifier with hepa filter running and a couple of fans. 4th day of not stepping foot outdoors for any reason! I keep telling myself, "this too shall pass".
Funny thing, (or not so funny) is we arrived here about 6 months ago from Southern California, so I'm familiar with fires. In my research, I knew we wouldn't be escaping them, and have read especially about wildfire smoke. The PNW is cooler and wetter, but also has a ton more trees to burn when the conditions turn warm and dry. Brings out the firebugs too. Those sickos!

But yeah, I'm sure it's always interesting for any newbie to any area of the country, when in their first year there, they experience an "historical, catastrophic" event be it fires, floods, hurricanes, blizzards, etc. I'm trying not to take it personally.

[Metlakatla]

The great majority of the areas affected by the fires weren't residential. If there had been homes in those areas, they would have burned.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

Ask the residents of Talent and Phoenix how well it's working. BTW I am not an opponent of urban growth boundaries. I have posted many times that I think they are a good thing. But letting developers run amok building highly flammable houses wall to wall is not a good solution, as these fires prove. It's just more capitalist profits over people's health and safety.

Several historic unplanned developments burned in these fires. You thought hundreds of tanker trucks could fight the fire in Phoenix, but fire hydrants would have saved neighborhoods. The rubble was obviously platted before 1983, when land use laws kicked in.

Putting fires out is a losing strategy. If it doesn't burn this year, it will burn next year.

One thing that would help immensely is fuel reduction. We have to go back to logging, and logging roads so we can get heavy equipment into the woods. We have to go back to grazing cattle and sheep to reduce ground level fuels. The insurance industry has to set standards that say if trees are taller than the distance to your house, your homeowner and renter insurance is canceled.

We already have building codes that require firewall construction if houses are too close together, but we have decades of obsolete pre-code housing ready to burn right along with the neighborhood, not to speak of all the wooden privacy fences, decks, and storage sheds on the property lines. Love that cedar; lights easy, burns hot.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

The great majority of the areas affected by the fires weren't residential. If there had been homes in those areas, they would have burned.

Rural homes with a defensible perimeter generally did not burn.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by Podo944

How are you doing now? I have a mild asthma myself, so yeah, this stuff is no fun at all.
We live in an apartment across the river from Portland and the air quality has been rated Hazardous and even "Beyond Index". Very scary. There's no air conditioning here, so we have portables, but had to pull them because the window vents was allowing the outside nasty air to seep in, but once we did that, it seems like this apartment has fairly good insulation. So now I feel like we're in a space capsule! Life support still works so we have an air purifier with hepa filter running and a couple of fans. 4th day of not stepping foot outdoors for any reason! I keep telling myself, "this too shall pass".
Funny thing, (or not so funny) is we arrived here about 6 months ago from Southern California, so I'm familiar with fires. In my research, I knew we wouldn't be escaping them, and have read especially about wildfire smoke. The PNW is cooler and wetter, but also has a ton more trees to burn when the conditions turn warm and dry. Brings out the firebugs too. Those sickos!

But yeah, I'm sure it's always interesting for any newbie to any area of the country, when in their first year there, they experience an "historical, catastrophic" event be it fires, floods, hurricanes, blizzards, etc. I'm trying not to take it personally.

I'm not doing bad now. But I'm staying indoors too. Right now the air quality is about 105, slightly unhealthy. The problem was last week when the smoke was so thick along the coast that it was turning day into night. The streetlights were all on in the middle of the afternoon. I have seen a lot of forest fires all over the western US, but I can't ever remember smoke that thick. These are a couple of traffic cam images I downloaded when I noticed the problem. Pretty crazy to think that most of that smoke was coming from over 100 miles away.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

Several historic unplanned developments burned in these fires. You thought hundreds of tanker trucks could fight the fire in Phoenix, but fire hydrants would have saved neighborhoods. The rubble was obviously platted before 1983, when land use laws kicked in.

Putting fires out is a losing strategy. If it doesn't burn this year, it will burn next year.

One thing that would help immensely is fuel reduction. We have to go back to logging, and logging roads so we can get heavy equipment into the woods. We have to go back to grazing cattle and sheep to reduce ground level fuels. The insurance industry has to set standards that say if trees are taller than the distance to your house, your homeowner and renter insurance is canceled.

We already have building codes that require firewall construction if houses are too close together, but we have decades of obsolete pre-code housing ready to burn right along with the neighborhood, not to speak of all the wooden privacy fences, decks, and storage sheds on the property lines. Love that cedar; lights easy, burns hot.

As I told you before, best as I can tell, all of the neighborhoods that burned in Phoenix and Talent had fire hydrants. I'm not sure if they had water in them or not, but they had hydrants. Logging is not the solution. Most of the trees that have been burning have been on private and public lands that have been logged repeatedly. Logging is the problem, not the solution. Forests are now burning at the highest levels since 1952. The fact is that the Smoky Bear program and the Forest Service's policy of putting fires out as soon as they started worked well for many decades. Since the Forest Service switched to the policy of letting fires burn, the problem has gotten progressively worse.

[ExNooYawk2]

Originally Posted by MovingForward59

Your best & safest bet would be the Midwest. You won’t have wildfires or major earthquakes & everything is much more affordable here along with being less crowded.

Yeah, the midwest is great, especially Tornado Alley.

[ExNooYawk2]

As an Ashland resident with family in both Talent and South Medford, I'm reading these comments with interest. The myriad solutions to fire danger are missing one important fact - your house has to be in the right direction when the wind is blowing. Whether it is "fireproof" or made out of wood; close to neighbors or on several acres, your property will be at the mercy of the wind.

My daughter's house was right at Ground Zero. Her house was spared but the neighborhood was dotted with homes that burned down. One street was fine, the next one over was obliterated. Downtown business burned to the ground but a select few were still there. Why? The wind chose some buildings over other buildings.

The entire Rogue Valley is in mourning and it is so sad. I am impressed at the number of volunteers who came out despite our dreadful air quality to minister to those suffering loss of home, pets and even family members. People need just about everything from toiletries to non-perishable food items to sleeping bags to...

It will take our area and so many others a long while to get over this.

[Deserterer]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

As I told you before, best as I can tell, all of the neighborhoods that burned in Phoenix and Talent had fire hydrants. I'm not sure if they had water in them or not, but they had hydrants. Logging is not the solution. Most of the trees that have been burning have been on private and public lands that have been logged repeatedly. Logging is the problem, not the solution. Forests are now burning at the highest levels since 1952. The fact is that the Smoky Bear program and the Forest Service's policy of putting fires out as soon as they started worked well for many decades. Since the Forest Service switched to the policy of letting fires burn, the problem has gotten progressively worse.

And exactly which forest or which forest service are you talking about? I am working for the Forest Service and the forest has either put out every single fire that was reported on the forest, or are in the process of doing so.