Fire Prep for Forest Dwellers

Simple things I plan to do to be more ready for a fire

Photo by Henrique Malaguti on Unsplash

The fires in northern Minnesota are burning near the area I used to live. This brings it home. Friends are sitting on the edge of any news, ready to leave. They packed their things and are waiting while helicopters keep coming overhead to bring water to the fires. The closest one is over 20,000 acres. So is the next one. The wind is in their favor, but not in the favor of others to the north and west. Both fires are burning uncontrolled and are 0% contained.

This brings it home not only because these are my old friends being impacted, but also because I live in the forest again now. A different forest to be sure, but just across the big lake, still in the Lake Superior basin. Wisconsin has forest fires, too.

I want to talk about preparations and will in a moment, but with these fires we need to be clear: They are climate change events. The fires in northern Minnesota are especially powerful because over the last ten years, a pest called the spruce budworm invaded the forest and killed virtually all of the spruce and balsam trees in the forest. Warmer weather and changing seasonal patterns were a huge part of the budworms’ dominance. All the trees they killed have been standing there dead and drying out for years. Now, every one of them is its own tinder box. The fire is moving quickly across the crowns of the trees because way up top they are so dead and dry. This is contributing the speed of the spread.

This is a climate change event ten years in the making.

What’s important about this is that climate is changing everywhere. We are having our own changes here in northern Wisconsin, and no one really knows what the impacts will be. Three winters ago we had enormous snowfall that brought down trees and branches throughout the forest. They are still laying there, drying out, fuel for a fire. That year was followed by two years of almost no snowfall whatsoever—very strange for this area. What does that do? No one really knows. But we can be certain that things are different. Then, I watch my former neighbors in Minnesota, and I begin to imagine what can happen.

Being Prepared

Like most people, my first thought is what I would want to take with me, and that’s pretty much anything irreplaceable—family photos and my journals. If I had a pet, that would be on the list, too. But as I keep reading about people’s fire experiences, it dawns on me that many folks have almost no time to pack things or take them. I wouldn’t have time, for example, to get to my storage locker to get boxes for packing the journals or the photos. Yet typically, that’s where I keep the boxes to get them out of the way.

I’ve also heard people talk about having a “go bag” ready. While my first thought is a set of overnight clothing and toiletries, I realize that’s not what is needed. Rather, it is things like passport, birth certificate, and insurance papers. These are irreplaceable items. I’m putting those in mine. In addition, I want the things I need to function every day through an emergency— some amount of cash, phone, charge cord, and medications. A small amount of non-perishable food is appropriate too. I don’t have a pet, but if I did, I would include some pet food.

Many of us who live remotely in the northern states think nothing of having extra blankets and jackets in our cars during the winter months. If we get into a blizzard, we have a way to stay warm even if we get stranded in our cars. But I haven’t really thought about a similar approach to fire events. Recent fires in Los Angeles, CA and Lahaina, HI have demonstrated how difficult it can be to get out of a fire’s way if you can’t see or breathe because of smoke. And when roads clog up or, as happened in LA during the fires, your tires melt, you may have to run on foot. This suggests to me that at a minimum, a respirator (or at least a set of N95 masks), goggles for eye protection, a fire blanket, and walking shoes ought to become standard equipment in my vehicle—the same way I carry blankets and jumper cables in the winter.

What direction will I go?

Defining potential escape routes is equally critical when you live in a forest. I have one north-south highway two miles away from me. But what if it is closed due to smoke? Five miles to the north, I can catch a road going west, and eight miles to the south, there’s one going east. But I have to be able to get to them. Realistically, these are the only roads I could take to escape the area, and the problem is that conditions change so quickly. The fires in Minnesota exploded from a few hundred acres to 15,000 acres overnight. A viable escape route the night before was no longer accessible by morning. Hence, a plan made at one time won’t work anymore.

In thinking about this, I want to know my area well enough to have alternative paths I can take. In an emergency, google may be of no help. This makes me aware that like many people, I am mostly a creature of habit. I don’t always explore outside of my habitual trips for groceries, recreation, and entertainment. I’m sure there are back road alternatives, but if I don’t know them and the main roads are blocked by fires, I’m kind of screwed. Starting tonight, I am starting to explore these roads more.

My Plan

Really, my plan comes down to four things—go bag at the ready, easy packing of irreplaceable items, prepare the car, and the escape route. The list isn’t enough though—I need to actually do it! Pack the go bag. Figure out how to have the boxes for the irreplaceable items. Get the blanket, goggles, and such for the car. Explore the alternative routes. Unfortunately, in this era of climate change, planning for winter blizzards isn’t enough anymore. I hope my friends in the forest are making their own plans to survive the fires which, like snow, will eventually come.

Anthony Signorelli

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