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Turn on the lawn sprinklers and faucets to flood the house. Cut down any close trees. If you can, hose the roof. Keep windows closed and put flammables in the
by opendomain 9y ago
Turn on the lawn sprinklers and faucets to flood the house.
Cut down any close trees. If you can, hose the roof. Keep windows closed and put flammables in the basement
From Reddit: omeowner turned his sprinklers on before leaving to escape a Kansas wildfire. He came home to the only house saved.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/5ymk35/homeowner_turned_his_sprinklers_on_before_leaving/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/5ymk35/homeowner_turn...
- kylec 9y agoDoes this really help? Is coming back to a half-burned-down house better than coming back to a house that's completely burned down?
- simcop2387 9y agoIt might let you recover things you couldn't take, like family photos or computers, etc.
- opendomain 9y agoThere are several news stories that show similar benefits.
- kbenson 9y agoCity mandated drought resistant front yard with mulch and drip system. :/ Two story house, so hosing the roof is hard, but it's tile at least. Northern California, so basements are pretty much non-existant. Faucets left on is an interesting idea, but given the fire is leaving flat slabs in its wake, not sure how much it will help. Probably can't hurt though. Thanks!
- marak830 9y agoI'd hate to disagree, and I hope you're not wasting too much time, if it's a big fire, fuck the house, you should be concentrating on your family. Family first, then necessities(water/food/clothing). Everything else is bullshit.
- kbenson 9y agoWe've been packed since 7am Monday when the initial scare hit, but stuff looks to be taking a turn for the worse tonight. Theres a lot of variables in play, but my wild guess would be maybe a 20% chance of it reaching my neighborhood, but not for many hours. This puts me in the situation of being able to be a bit more methodical than I have been so far.
- marak830 9y agoHmm methodical is good, just don't be too sure about how quickly a fire can move. A slight shift in the wind and a better combustible can make an amazing difference in speed.
- mrj 9y agoI read once you should run the AC at max, something about keeping the attic and house cooler can help it avoid spontaneously catching fire from close heat.
- vermilingua 9y agoAC units also typically dehumidify air, which is the last thing you want in a bushfire.
- jonknee 9y agoThough the air is already so dry I’m not sure it makes much of a difference.
- Kadin 9y agoI think it'd be much preferable to turn the power off before leaving.
- HarryHirsch 9y agoAnd especially the gas.
- jbermudes 9y agoThe comments in the reddit post from professionals stated that the sprinklers were not very useful for that purpose and advise against it: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/5ymk35/homeowner_turned_his_sprinklers_on_before_leaving/deri42s/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/5ymk35/homeowner_turn...
- in_cahoots 9y agoNot to mention that, if everyone does this, the water pressure will be decreased where the fire trucks need it. If the fire turns out not to threaten your property you’ll feel like the worlds’ biggest jerk.
- pfarnsworth 9y agoActually, no where does he advise against it. Did you even read the comments? He said "The sprinklers could have helped, but I just see solid defensible space. Trees are limbed up, grass is maintained, no dead veg on the property, no trees taller than the roof that would put litter into the gutters."
- GoToRO 9y agoThat's not what they said: "As a former wildland fire fighter I can tell you the sprinklers made a huge difference but..."
- marak830 9y ago24 hrs is too late to cut down trees. The amount of flammable branches left around is too high of a risk. That's a week or so beforehand type job.