SUMMARY KEYWORDS
house, fire, tree, embers, year, feet, area, ignite, canopy, home, people, pine needles, vegetation, remove, firewood, zone, air, gutters, abt, nevada county
00:02
Before you start your next do it yourself project. Listen to this. You Got This! is on the air you got this is hosted by ABT plumbing electric heat and air owner, Andrew Twidwell, and Rosalie Brown with a helpful hand. Here are Andrew and Rosalie.
00:18
Hi, It’s Andrew Twidwell, owner of ABT plumbing electric heat and air, here once again with the show You Got This!, the show DIY do’s and don’ts. And I’m zooming in here with Rosalie Brown in our lovely Grass Valley office today, and it’s Wednesday and it’s super hot. It’s supposed to be cooler this week weekend. So yeah, I mean, it’s we’re recording this 11 On Wednesday, and it’s already you know, 80 degrees or 85 degrees, so it’s gonna be a warm one today. So yeah, it’s getting warm again.
00:50
I guess my AC is running and I rushed out before recording to do a couple errands. We’re having, deadly levels of pollen right now. So I woke up this morning and my whole head was like, Oh, no. And as I’m sitting here recording with you, I’m looking at my computer, and they’ve got a danger warning for very high ultraviolet today. And they’ve got pollen in like the highest zone it goes to so it’s kind of challenging right now.
01:23
Is it gonna be warm down there today as well?
01:26
Well, I’d say about 70 right now, so No, probably not bad. I mean, I think we’ll be under 80 Yeah, it’s not that I don’t think we’re gonna have that high.
01:34
Not another reason to stay inside. But you got two good reasons to stay inside.
01:38
Yes, me. Trust me.
01:41
Paul has been brutal up here. I know. Yeah. My eyes are constantly watering. throat hurts a little bit and like to have COVID Again, no, it’s just allergies.
01:50
I know the screaming headache in my sinuses, the pressure may sinuses and my man voice. That’s always my indicator that I’ve got. I’m like, Okay, your voice goes down a couple octaves. Yeah, I’m like, I’m probably not dying, I probably needing to stay inside and take care. So yeah,
02:09
don’t really do this. But I will just throw this in. We do have filtration, that for polling for your whole house, and I’ve got it on my house and a lot. The air quality inside inside my house is right now especially during policies and policies, and there’s a lot better than it is outside. Doesn’t quite flare up as much when I’m inside. So when we’re using the system,
02:32
so when you’re so because this correlates to what we’re going to talk about today, but so like let’s say it’s the dreaded fire season and there’s fires. Does that also help you guys with like that when the outside is really accurate and orange
02:46
with smoke? Yep. Yeah. And then you know, having AC helps because you can actually turn the air conditioning around. Hopefully you’ve got power at the time, depending on PGD decision, but hopefully you have AC so you can keep the windows closed and have to read the smoke in. And then also, yeah, on my system, I’ve got an air scrubber which helps with UV it helps with a UV light and it takes out a lot of the smoke out of the air plus the filter filters out all the particulates, so it reduces all that stuff. So yeah.
03:18
Oh and abt abt sell says, Yeah,
03:21
we sell and install them all the time. Yeah, and I got the works. So yeah, I wanted to give it a shot and definitely improve the indoor air quality of our house. So and I’ve got really I don’t have really bad allergies, but you know, it’s normal, but it definitely helps. I’m not a fan of Benadryl for some reason. My wife’s always like, just take a Benadryl, but like and the suffer a little bit. Well.
03:48
Yeah, Benadryl is like the knockout so even though I’ll be awake, it’s like don’t try to have a conversation with me. Don’t ask me to do any work for you. Like just wait, I’m super fuzzy with Benadryl. So yeah, I’m not but what are you gonna do? Okay, why Okay, so hey, so that was a good that was interesting info but I really didn’t even know that we did that
04:13
well, that’s the thing Yeah, we do water filtration and air filtration. So we do both water quality, improve indoor water quality and improve indoor air quality. So and it’s something I’ve been pretty passionate about for many many years because it’s something that you can you know, I can get it we can do anything. We can get the stuff really clear it just depends on how much money you want to spend right the more you want to get out of anything the more it’s going to cost but yeah, yeah.
04:40
Price purity has the price make right yeah, that’s true.
04:47
But purity
04:50
this could go in so many different directions. Let’s talk about right let’s talk about our topic today. So because we are, you know, headed into a It feels like in California, there really is constant fire season all year long. But we know that we’re becoming that form, you know that when you actually hit like traditional summertime for us. And that’s really when that fire danger seems to to increase. And so
05:14
yeah, we already had one, Camp DeVille. So that was a little scary. It is
05:17
scary. And so we thought today, we just kind of remind everybody, there are some things you can do to kind of mitigate or try to reduce the risk to your home. Of course, there’s no guarantee right, but I’m doing
05:32
it. But it’s kind of amazing when you know, every year you see this pictures, right? Every year, pictures from different fire areas where there’s like one house that is surrounded by how homes burned down. And there’s one house that they went full force, and they took care of everything they were supposed to take care of, and their house didn’t burn down. So it does it does work. But yeah, like you say, there’s no guarantee. And it really depends on how far you want to go. Like, like, I’ve got wood siding, I’m not going to be putting Hardy plank on it. And I’ve got composite shingles, I’m not planning on putting a metal roof on anytime soon. Probably 10 years out of it. So there’s those things you can do. But those are bigger, bigger projects, right. And most of the homes that are being built today are very much better for fire issues in California than some of the homes like ours, my house was built in the 30s. So yeah, it wasn’t exactly, it barely followed code, let alone
06:28
write code was not even on the radar isn’t even
06:32
a thing. I mean, yeah, I remember when I first moved up here, and I was working for the Navajos, and most of them, they were still doing, like plot drawings on backs of napkins and things and that was 25 years ago. That was the level of tech that that the and they were the ones actually wrote it down like a lot of the other companies didn’t even didn’t even mark where the where the systems were where the the septic tanks and where the leach fields were so yeah, I mean, they were above most of most of the people. But it was still Yeah, literally just on a piece of paper with a pen.
07:06
Yeah, like a new concept. Okay, well, so you know, we’ve come a long way. But a lot of the homes like in Placer, and Nevada counties are older, because you know, you don’t have a ton of new construction in these areas. And so what I thought was interesting, and we’re going to cover this a little bit today, this would be one of our guide posts to talk about this is you’re going to hear us talk about the home in home ignition zone. And so in, in the 1990s, the Forest Service actually have one of their scientists, gentleman named Jack Cohen, he came through with some research on how homes actually ignite due to the effects of radiant heat. So then this became what they call the home ignition zone. So basically, this, these zones are broken up into three, right and so you have the the first the immediate zone is the home, your home and then the area up to five feet from you know, the furthest attached structure. So let’s go ahead and dive in and talk a little bit. I’m
08:07
sure you guys see if you’ve been in Nevada County or placer. County for any length of time. I’m sure you’ve seen these diagrams, but it’s just a refresher for some of you. But some of you new peeps that have moved up here, it’s definitely something you want to take into consideration when you’re going around your house. And you know, I done some of these things poorly, living here for the last 22 years. So I was reading through this and like, wow, I didn’t do that. So we’ll get to those. But yeah, good stuff. So it’s good stuff to refresh your memory on and it’s good stuff to just do the best that you can. Some of the things in here are things that if we live in, if you live in a forest, you’re not going to be able to do some of these things. But in any event, the immediate zone, the home area between zero to five feet from your structure. One of the most obvious things is clean those gutters, clean the roof of pine needles, I know that’s something that I’ve got to do. I haven’t I just started cleaning the gutters, getting all the pine needles out and those pine needles are our true pain simply because of the fact that even some of the the LeafGuard gutters it’ll they’ll get through so you definitely want to take a look and see if they’ve gotten through there. Because they can kind of worm their way through steps to go up there and clean up all the pine needles and all the leaves out of the gutters and off the roof. The reason why is I mean what they’re talking about is these flying embers right we’ve seen video of forest fires in and suburban areas or rural areas where those embers are flying hundreds of feet or even miles I know. We live near Condon Park and when the fire happened a couple years back in the south Yuba Canyon, we were getting flaming embers and leaves on our property and we’re good two miles from the river so they can fly along. way. So it something even if you’re not necessarily in the fire area, those embers can fly that night pining. Will
10:09
pine needles. I mean, you know if you’re ever out camping and you’re gonna start a safe fire, let’s say that it was to start a fire. You know, I’ve used pine needles as started. So flammable, right? Yeah. So I mean that they really are dangerous because they pick up fire real quick. So
10:28
especially on the roof because you’ve got certain trade between, they’re not densely packed, they’ve got airspace so definitely your gutters. Replace any loose or missing shingles again for those embers because they can get underneath there and ignite the roof under neath the shingle. So you want to make sure the shingles are tight and in place, reduce any embers from passing through vents. This is something that I’ve learned more recently about, but embers will actually go through the attic vents that you know where the house breeze. So you want to make sure you’ve got eighth inch wire on those vents. And that’s literally the hole between the wires is an eighth of an inch to keep those embers from getting inside. Because once they get inside, they can easily ignite your home. Cleaned up debris from exterior attic vents and installing mesh mesh again, repair replace damaged or loose window screens. Again, this is one of the things you don’t really think about. But if you’ve got the window open and they’ve got a broken window screen, an ember can actually fly through that window screen and get into your home and start your house on fire. It’s like whoo, think about that. Move, move any flammable material away from the wall. exteriors mulch, flammable plants, leaves and needles, firewood piles, and anything that can burn. And this is one thing that was like, Oh yeah, and you know, 10 years ago, I lived up on top of Bear Mountain and we burned wood. And I’d have about three or four cords underneath my porch next to the house underneath our bed, our master bedroom. So in retrospect, not the best place to put firewood I should have had it further away. And that’s three chords. That’s all it had. I managed to put it in an area where it had a lot of wind going through it so that it would, you know, dry it out. But that embers so I’m like, you know, in retrospect, it’s like, Ooh, that was really not the best idea seemed like a great idea at the time. But knowing what I know now I would definitely not do that anymore.
12:24
I mean, you really don’t want to you don’t want to serve really anything on your Dexter porches especially during fire season. Absolutely not. Right.
12:31
Yeah. And and you know, a lot of people use wood for for fire for burning in their homes. You want to keep those things away from your house because it’s it’s literally that’s what you got. You got firewood, it’s easily ignitable, it’s dry, it’s tender, and you probably got air going through it. So yeah. Yeah, so the next zone, the intermediate zone. So this is the five to 30 feet from your house. So now you know we’ve kind of gotten into the garden area, right, if you will. So those areas you want to clear the vegetation from any under any large stationary propane tanks. Which you know, again, a lot of people have propane tanks. So you want to make sure you don’t have any wood or plywood piled up next year propane tank because if that ignites and the propane tank gets hot. I mean, well. Hopefully it’ll just leak out but it will, you know, you got a little fire jet coming I think create fuel brakes with driveways, walkways, paths, patios and decks. So hardscapes around your house is not a bad idea. You know, keep lawns in native grasses modes, no higher than four inches. So you know, I just did that last week and taking care of our meadow. Now’s the time to do it before it gets too dry. Because you want to be out there mowing and Iraq with your mower. And if you’re not using a line trimmer, igniting it, you know, do it while the vegetation still damp. Remove ladder fuels. This is a big one. prune trees up to six to 10 feet from the ground. Take out any any of the the smaller plants that could work as a ladder fuel to get into the canopy. I know we’ve done that I’ve gone through I’ve had somebody come through and prune up all our trees, and especially like the cedars around here, those bottom bottom branches tend to die off. And once they ignite those go all the way from to the canopy so and it’ll get hot. So you want to you know, cut those things off to about six to 10 feet. Spaced trees to have a minimum of eight feet between the Crown
14:42
it’s 18 feet 18 feet,
14:45
which is Team feet.
14:46
Yeah, that’s gonna be a little harder. Yeah, if you live in the forest like most of us
14:53
could you Yeah, you’ve got trees that are actually the canopies are actually touching, touching each other so it’s tough but you know in that 30 foot Ringing ring around your house. You know, ideally, like I know, the house that we’re in right now, actually, I’ve got a couple of trees within 30 feet. But it’s a good idea if you can take those trees out if they’re 30 feet, so they’re not overhanging your house. Because yeah, it’s it’s not cool and and keeping them separate. So in that 30 foot radius around your house, you can do this, the majority of people can do this. It’s when you get out to the farther spaces it’s even harder though. But Perimetry six to 10 feet. And if it’s a smaller, shorter tree, don’t, don’t prune it more than a third. Yeah, because you’re going to, you’re going to kill your tree. Tree placement should be planned to ensure that the mature canopy is no closer than 10 feet to the edge of the structure. Again, hard to do in the forest, depending on where you live. But if you can avoid it, that’s a good thing to do. Tree and shrubs in the zone should be limited to small clusters of a few each to break up the continuation of the vegetation across the landscape. So that’s another thing to kind of think about. It’s kind of late to be taken trees out. We’re gonna have a hard time getting a tree guy with these this time of year but tree company out. But yeah, I definitely think that if you haven’t already done it, than the tree work in your house, get on there, get on their docket because I know the guys are just slammed treat people or are just slammed these days. And it’s a tough job. So there’s people getting into it. It’s one of those jobs I would never want to do. But
16:32
there’s plenty of people who enjoy very demanding My God
16:35
very physical very dangerous, or meeting a guy that had a tree explode on him while he was cutting. He was a timber man and he was a quadriplegic so yeah, it’s it’s scary stuff. And that was just a tree that was hollow was dropping it didn’t realize it was hollow and it just literally blew up on him as it was dropping so it just broke his neck in any of it.
16:58
That’s a fun story. Andrew
17:02
if you live up here long enough you meet guys that have had some things experiences which is right yeah, I named I didn’t meet a lot of people that had those kind of experiences when I grew up in San Francisco
17:13
I’m sure not Yeah, I don’t I feel Yeah, yeah,
17:17
I didn’t exactly know a lot of people that were true fellas you that are better for a group I know we get out to the extended zone that 30 to 100 feet or even out to 200 feet. Landscaping The goal here is to eliminate fire but to is not to eliminate fire but to interrupt fires path and keep flame smaller and on the ground. So those are really far out areas you probably not you know you especially if you’re if you’re live in a forest we live in you know, the conifer or even the oak forest you know, out 100 200 feet 100 feet out from the house you’re gonna have some you’re gonna have some dense trees but you know when they say remove dispose or remove any accumulation of groundwater or debris on the ground yep, that’s gonna be like twigs and pine needles and things I have I go back and forth about this I don’t like the D nude the the ground of pine needles and things because I’d like to have a little bit there just for it’s good for soil but I know it’s it’s probably not a good idea for fires. I don’t know. I don’t know what the answer is. I mean they are well for for soil for fire, they say get rid of remove dead plants and and tree material. Yeah, I mean, do that. Get out there and whack down those dead trees in any kind of bush or anything like that. That’s that’s that’s there I got a I got I lost a tree that the the deciduous tree that did come back this year and I got to take it out. Remove all saw small conifers growing between mature trees. So any of those little guys that are growing up. Again, just take them out because it’s that ladder fuel right? It’s that fuel that can bridge the gap between the ground to the canopy of the tree that really is critical because once it gets into the canopy have to start jumping and jumping from one tree to tree and it can get really really hot. So you want to keep it from from the trunk of the tree probably won’t catch fire. Fortunately, our fire forest here was grown with fire in mind. I mean they’ve evolved for having forest fires. But if it gets up into the canopy, it’s game over. They can kill it. Remove vegetation adjacent to sheds, or outbuildings in this area. So you want to make sure you don’t have any dead stuff and or anything that can ignite. And even you know I mean you’ve got you probably have your firewood out there so you’re gonna have firewood in it, but store that firewood pretty far away from your house. You don’t want to throw it up against your house. I would say you probably want it 30 to 100 feet from your house. You know, and have a good pile inside the house somewhere in the garage are in next to the fireplace. So you don’t have to go out and get one piece every single time you need a piece of wood or a couple pieces of wood. Remove all vegetation adjacent to storage said trees 30 to 60 feet from the house should have at least 12 feet between canopy tops. That’s gonna be hard. However the they say there’s an asterix here the distance list for crowded spaces such as adjusted by the NFPA. However, the current spacing need to reduce or prevent crown fire potential could be significantly greater due to a slope. The species of trees involved in other site specific conditions, check with your local forestry professional to get advice on this for appropriate what’s appropriate for your fire, or for your property. I know when we lived up on banner, we had a really steep slope and we just we chopped down all the trees on the slope. Because it was just too scary. But yeah, talk to your arborist talk to a tree guy about you know what would be safe, and get on there. If you’re thinking about doing this get on their schedule now. Give them a call now, because it’ll probably take them two to six months before they get out to you right now. 360 To 100 feet from the home should have at least six feet between the canopies and the tops again, it’s, you know, if you live in a forest, it’s gonna be a little hard. But we are talking about that 100 foot radius from the house we’re not talking about out in the forest. But I know like Deer Creek Park and some of those areas where you’ve got quarter acre lots and a lot of four and a lot trees. I don’t know, if you’re gonna want to take all the trees out. That’s really up to you. But to be on the safe side, this is what they’re recommending. So it’s kind of, you know, these are recommendations. really take it seriously, because it’s, you know, it’s that time of year, and if anybody has driven through paradise. Yeah, that one really got me going on this stuff. Yeah,
21:57
well, and if people want to kind of find out more, I know that the Nevada County website actually has like fire prevention, you know, guide suggestions. And also, you can sign up for alerts to find out what’s going on in
22:14
your area. If you haven’t signed up for alerts, like one of the things like most of us, we’ve gotten rid of our landlines. So you really need to sign up for the red alert to call your cell phone because you don’t have a lot of a landline to call. So they don’t know where you’re at. Right? Especially if you Yeah, I mean, you’ve got to sign up for these things. So definitely sign up for because you want to know when as far as we’re coming. And also great resources are given that if you guys don’t support UVA, net support UVA net they’re amazing resource for following fires this time of year, they, they they are one of our only truly
22:48
breaking news. I mean, it’s breaking news in more than any other
22:51
reporting era organization, and here they are over the other media tends to reference them. And it’s just two people. So definitely support them, if you can we support them. They’re a great, great resource. So definitely go on there. And they’ve got information too on on fire safety as well. They do and
23:13
and if you want one more resource, you can go to the National Fire Prevention Association, which is an F p a.org. They have a lot of the information we’d reference today. Yes, like visuals and other kinds of checklists, reminders, those are nice. They can just kind of have on your on your fridge.
23:28
Yeah, and we’ve kind of run out of time. But I was going to just, I got two more seconds we do. Speaking of pg&e, and the PSPS power outages, we do backup generators. So if you need a backup generator, give us a call. You can find us you can call us at 530-230-9092 The number again 530-230-9092 You can find us on the web at these zbt.com. And please like us on Facebook, we’ve got a lot of fun stuff and we’ll put this we’ll have a link to this on our Facebook page and as well on our our website. So hope this information is useful. Hope I didn’t scare you too much, but it is pretty serious stuff in our in our counties. And you want to be safe. And with that. Thanks for listening and we’ll catch you next week.
24:14
Bye. Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, Rosalie. Now let’s get that project started. You got this. We’ll be back next Friday morning at nine o’clock on KMC on Newstalk 830