Possible Fire Scenarios

Scenario 1

John and Mary live on steep hillside lot. They have done everything possible to create a defensible space around their house by clearing all of the brush from their lot. However, the steep canyon below their house is densely wooded and is full of brush. Their close-by neighbor's house is covered with wood shingle siding and the rain gutters are overflowing with pine needles. John and Mary reluctantly decided their house would be fire-prone no matter what they did.  They developed a fire plan that included evacuation at first notice of a fire danger.

Scenario 2

John was working in the yard when he saw the smoke far away down the hill they live on. He told Mary and they implemented their plan. Mary went to the desk and grabbed the box from the desk that contained their important papers and family photos and took them to the car. John unplugged his computer tower and put it in the car and grabbed the cat carrier from garage. Mary caught Tiger, the cat, and placed him in the carrier while John gathered Mary's essential prescriptions from the bathroom. As John backed the car out of the garage, Mary knocked on the door of their next door neighbors, Ted and Alice and warned them about
the fire. There seemed to be more smoke in the direction of one of the two evacuation routes they had drawn on their map, so they drove off on the other. They watched the hill burn from the safe area at the high school.

Scenario 3

Ted and Alice had done no planning. Ted tried to phone the fire department to find out what was happening. Alice got a large cardboard box and began packing her valuable silverware and dishes. Ted tried to find their important papers as Alice continued to load valuables into the car. When they were about to leave, Fuzzy, the cat, escaped from the car and they spent five minutes catching her. By the time they were ready to leave, smoke filled the air and they could hardly see to drive. They drove the only route they were familiar with off the hill (the one John and Mary had decided against). In the dense smoke Ted drove off the road and hit a tree. They were in the car huddled together when the wall of fire engulfed them.

Scenario 4

Larry and Fred lived on the next street over from John and Mary. They too had prepared a fire plan and cleared a defensible space around their house. However, they were in the den watching the game when the fire started. They were unaware of the progress of the fire until they noticed the dense smoke out side the window. They went outside and saw that both of their evacuation routes were engulfed in smoke. They decided they would "shelter-in-place." Larry drove the car out of the garage, backed it back in, disconnected the automatic garage door, and manually closed the door. They loaded the car with the box containing their important records and valuables. Then, they started doing the other things on the checklist, “What to Do if a Wildfire is Approaching.” As the flames grew near, they closed all the interior doors and retreated to the garage. In a thunderous five minutes the fire front passed. After the front had passed, they peeked out and saw that most of the smoke had cleared. They put on heavy cotton jackets stored in the garage and went outside. Their house was burning at the roof-line.

They opened the garage door and drove away on the route John and Mary had used. In about a half-mile they arrived at an unburned area and proceeded to safety.  Louise and Tom lived in a treeless flat area a half-mile downwind from the fire. The lots adjacent to their house were vacant and had been mowed a month before. They had made their fire plan and decided that their house was fire safe. They decided to stay in their house after they saw the fire. They used their garden hose and buckets of water to put out spot fires from the falling embers.

Scenario 5

Tina and Abigail lived in a small house on a twenty-five foot lot. The houses next to theirs were only six feet away. They had made a fire plan based on their house being fire safe. However, when the rain of embers caught their neighbor’s house on fire they decided to evacuate. They quickly gathered up their important things and drove the car to a nearby undeveloped safe area. They watched as the fire spread and consumed six houses in their neighborhood.