ATHABASCA – Fall is a favourite time of year for many Canadians: the sweltering heat breaks, bugs go away, and everyone gears up for the heavy winter we all inevitably know is coming.
Part of that winter preparation process includes getting outdoor chores out of the way around the acreage, said Athabasca County’s regional fire chief Travis Shalapay.
“As we come into fall here, with acreages, now is a really good time to start looking at the ‘fire-smarting’ of the properties,” said Shalapay. “As things dry out, you can start to really see where those risks are.”
FireSmart is a federal program aimed at reducing the risks of wildfires across the country. Shalapay was referring to “home ignition zones,” which all need to be managed to reduce wildfire threats.
The first zone, the immediate zone, is from zero to 1.5 metres away from the house. The second zone runs from 1.5 to 10 metres, and the extended zone goes until 30 metres away from the home.
“A lot of people are intimidated by FireSmart because they think it’s this big, massive undertaking that’s going to overwhelm them, but it doesn’t have to be,” said Shalapay. “It starts with simple maintenance — pruning dead brush, trimming tree limbs down low, just getting things a little more structured.”
From there, Shalapay said it is important to keep in mind fire-resistant plant species — maybe skip the rose bushes that grow up against the home’s siding, according to him — and if you’re doing large-scale renovations, choose higher grades of fire-rated materials, even if they’re more expensive.
“After a lot of the events we’ve seen in the province, folks always wonder why some homes are spared, and some homes burn. If you look at the before photos, you can see a lot of FireSmart principle concepts going on,” said Shalapay. “Fall time, it’s a great time to be doing some yard cleanup. Come springtime, the snow is all gone, and everyone wants to get out and start enjoying the outdoors.”
Internal risks
Fall is also a good time to make sure utilities are in a good, working condition. As Shalapay put it, things rarely fail at opportune times, and it’s better to be checking a sewage pipe in the sun, than in the middle of the night when the temperature is -30 C.
Shalapay identified three major heating devices as consistent fire risks for acreage residents: furnaces, wood stoves, and heat tape.
“This is the time of year where we’re going to start seeing a bunch of alarm calls, because we’re going to see furnaces start to kick in,” he said. “Now’s the time to get furnaces and HVAC systems checked out.”
The same principle applies to any type of heating technology — after a summer of sitting unused, a wide variety of issues can occur. Not even the firefighters themselves are immune to it.
“We had one of our fire halls last fall where one of our two heaters failed to operate when it got cold because it had a bird’s nest in it,” said Shalapay. “We talked about cleaning the vents in the wintertime from ice and debris, but in the fall before you fire it up, make sure air intakes and exhausts aren’t fenced in.”
Heat tape, a — typically thermostatically controlled and electrically powered — product that gets wrapped around water and sewage piping under mobile homes, is another important tool to check. In the last year, firefighters have responded to two fires caused by the substance.
“You don’t want to be out there when it’s -30, crawling underneath when the lines are frozen cause the tape didn’t work. That sucks, but it’s the most positive outcome of a heat tape failure,” said Shalapay.
Shalapay recommended acreage owners sit down and make a plan of everything that needs doing before winter sets in — he himself lives on a farm, and admitted the list can get pretty daunting.
“It can be overwhelming if you don’t have a plan and wait to the last minute,” he said. “If you take the time and pick away at it slowly, it’s quite manageable.”
