Ready for Evac.

[MudderNuker]

Some of you may have heard about the catastrophic fires surrounding the beautiful Village of Ruidoso, NM. So far from an old update from yesterday, the fire is more than 23k acres and 1,400 structures have been destroyed. Due to bad weather tanker planes and spotting airplanes have not been able to fly since yesterday. There was no flight last night to collect infrared imagery to provide an updated map of the fire footprint. As of now my family and I are on hot standby at our home which is about 4 miles north of where the fire was yesterday morning. Not knowing if our 18 acres of forested land and our house is in imminent danger is nerve racking as we have not been unable to get any information since yesterday. For that reason we loaded up our camper with food, water, clothes, emergency supplies, important documents and some of our property that hold sentimental value. This is a very stressful situation but we are not willing to risk our lives trying to save property unlike our neighbors that keep dating they will stay and fight the fire with hoses. Crazy and futile idea. We will evacuate if in imminent danger. I'm sure many of you live in forests, please be prepared and leave if ordered. Property can be replaced.

The second photo was taken from the upper part of our property.

Sponsored

 

[MPMB]

While I don't condone "fighting" the fire with hoses, there have been properties saved because the homeowners kept sprinkler systems running as the fire approached.

Keep trees and other fuel sources away from the home.

Good luck.

 

[BUZZHEAD]

I hope the best for you and your family.
May god keep you and your family safe.

 

[MudderNuker]

While I don't condone "fighting" the fire with hoses, there have been properties saved because the homeowners kept sprinkler systems running as the fire approached.

Keep trees and other fuel sources away from the home.

Good luck.

We trimmed branches and removed smaller shrubs, debris and have fire breaks in the property but not sure how effective that would be with the high winds we get here. We don't have sprinkler system but will install one as soon as we can. The issue we have is that we run on well water and pressure isn't the greatest. My plan is to used a booster pump. I have been looking at ideas on how to place the sprinklers.

 

[MudderNuker]

I hope the best for you and your family.
May god keep you and your family safe.

Thank you. We are good. Not so for the many that have lost everything. Seems like cause for both fires were arson. Two people have died as a result. I hope they charge the person/s with murder.

 

[Coldtoes]

We will evacuate if in imminent danger. I'm sure many of you live in forests, please be prepared and leave if ordered. Property can be replaced.

While I don't condone "fighting" the fire with hoses, there have been properties saved because the homeowners kept sprinkler systems running as the fire approached.

Having been through a number of severe fires, with the Thomas Fire (Ventura, CA) being the most devastating in recent history, the OP's perspective is certainly the safest. Every location and fire is different, but significant problems i've seen come up with trying to protect one's home is power outages shutting down water pumping stations / local wells making sprinkler systems ineffective. In my county there is a minimum area (100'?) around all buildings required to be cleared of all brush and dried trees (seen as a fire hazard, not live trees). The Thomas Fire had 200'+ flames jumping ridgeline to ridgeline, and embers lighting houses regardless of clearance or wet areas around the house. It's not to say it might not help, but I would hope homeowners would consider it a last-ditch effort as they are evacuating and not something to rely on to stay put. The only houses I saw effectively survive the fires with direct contact to the fire were ones that had invested tens of thousands into protection systems. These included industrial well maintained generators (not the portable little ones most have), that were hard wired to the house, with stand alone water tanks (metal), permanently installed roof sprinklers, ZERO wood exposed (including sealed eves), and high volume water pumps they could connect 2-4" hoses to for draining their pool to soak surrounding areas. Those are measures my family couldn't afford but a friend i know did. In that fire we lost of lot of orchard and minor property damage, but mostly we just got lucky. From my perspective staying to "protect my house" is more of just a gamble of "I think I'll be lucky".
@MudderNuker - sounds like you're being smart, I wish you the best of luck. Be safe, and best of luck.

 

[Scott L]

Stay safe keep your family close and be ready. We had a similar albiet smaller situation last year at our house in Va. Fire was five miles from us and had destroyed a few homes but fire crews were able to get it under control before we had to go. It’s nerve wracking for sure.

 

[BUZZHEAD]

Thank you. We are good. Not so for the many that have lost everything. Seems like cause for both fires were arson. Two people have died as a result. I hope they charge the person/s with murder.

I agree - be safe brother

 

[Josh00333]

Be safe Mudder.

 

[Texops]

Praying for y’all

 

[BearFootSam]

We trimmed branches and removed smaller shrubs, debris and have fire breaks in the property but not sure how effective that would be with the high winds we get here. We don't have sprinkler system but will install one as soon as we can. The issue we have is that we run on well water and pressure isn't the greatest. My plan is to used a booster pump. I have been looking at ideas on how to place the sprinklers.

A booster pump isn't going to help if your flow rate is below the pump output. A more reliable option would be a cistern feeding the pump. Depending on how far below the water level your well pump is, when you and the neighbors start pumping during a fire you may overdraw the local aquifer and end up with no flow.

IMO you are wise to evacuate. My aunt was killed by a fast-moving grassfire two years ago in Wyoming. She was an experienced wildland fire fighter but when the winds shift, and flame are jumping roads it can run up on you fast.

 

[MudderNuker]

A booster pump isn't going to help if your flow rate is below the pump output. A more reliable option would be a cistern feeding the pump. Depending on how far below the water level your well pump is, when you and the neighbors start pumping during a fire you may overdraw the local aquifer and end up with no flow.

IMO you are wise to evacuate. My aunt was killed by a fast-moving grassfire two years ago in Wyoming. She was an experienced wildland fire fighter but when the winds shift, and flame are jumping roads it can run up on you fast.

I do plan on a cistern for our water needs in case or power outages and aquifer issues. Not going to happen in immediately since we have other projects ahead of it. The well sits at the bottom of our property and pumps up to our house which is maybe 50 feet higher. My plan is to place the water tank on the upper part of our land so it can gravity feed the house if needed. since we haven't yet gone full solar, we still depend on the grid. For that reason we want a standby generator which will eventually be tied to the solar system for backup and charge batteries if PV isn't enough. Our well pump is a 1HP Grundfos 10GPM but can't remember the rated head and it feeds a 90G pressure tank. I think it would fill a decent size cistern albeit slowly.

 

[BourbonRunner]

Always better to leave and remain safe than to risk it. Worst case scenario then is you evacuated when you didn't have to. Beat the alternative.

My cousins lost their home in the Santa Rosa CA fires several years ago. They couldn't sleep because of the stress and the high winds howling, and they along with most of their neighbors went into town and posted up at a Denny's through the night. They brought a small lockbox of essential docs, just in case. Several hours later they went back to the house to see their entire cul de sac except one home completely leveled by the wind-blown fires.

 

[MudderNuker]

Always better to leave and remain safe than to risk it. Worst case scenario then is you evacuated when you didn't have to. Beat the alternative.

My cousins lost their home in the Santa Rosa CA fires several years ago. They couldn't sleep because of the stress and the high winds howling, and they along with most of their neighbors went into town and posted up at a Denny's through the night. They brought a small lockbox of essential docs, just in case. Several hours later they went back to the house to see their entire cul de sac except one home completely leveled by the wind-blown fires.

Exactly why we are not risking it. The bigger fire of the two, grew from 20 acres to 14,000 in less than a day. Scary.

 

[BourbonRunner]

Exactly why we are not risking it. The bigger fire of the two, grew from 20 acres to 14,000 in less than a day. Scary.

That is scary. We get some wild fires here but nowhere remotely like what ya'll get out west. Stay safe!

Sponsored