[ODF_Private_Forests] Wildfire Awareness Week 2009 targets backyard debris burning

[WEEKS Kevin]

The Keep Oregon Green Association issued this news release today.

April 28, 2009

Contact: Mary Ellen Holly
Keep Oregon Green Association
503-945-7499

Wildfire Awareness Week 2009 targets backyard debris burning

Spring is the perfect time to remove dead vegetation and limb up trees around the backyard. By taking these steps, homeowners in Oregon's wildland-urban interface areas can reduce the chances of a wildfire devastating their properties.

Safe disposal of shrub and tree trimmings after spring clean-up work is crucial. Every year across the state, backyard debris burns to remove yard waste escape to become costly, damaging wildfires. This past year, 206 debris burns turned into wildfires, burning more than 400 acres and costing over $280,000 to suppress. The majority of these fires were started on small parcels of land, in the wildland-urban interface, by the landowners.

Chipping yard waste for use as compost is the safest method of disposal. But if chipping is not possible, please follow these safety tips to keep your backyard debris burn from becoming a 911 call:
1.      Call your local fire district for permission to burn. Local fire officials may designate certain days for burning, based on weather and wind conditions. In some areas, burning is not allowed at any time.
2.      Burn ONLY backyard debris. Some plastics, treated lumber and other manufactured products give off toxic fumes.
3.      Cover a burn barrel with one-fourth-inch mesh screen. Screen that is too coarse, or using no screen at all, will allow hot embers to escape.
4.      Keep burn barrels and burn piles away from structures, overhanging branches and autos.
5.      Keep burn piles small. Add debris in small amounts as existing material is consumed. A burn pile is less likely to escape control if it is kept small. A large burn may cast hot embers long distances.
6.      Attend your burn at all times. A burn left unattended for only a few minutes can grow into a costly, damaging wildfire.
7.      Make sure your fire is dead out. When burning is completed, drown the fire with water, stir, and then drown again. Even when a fire stops smoking and appears to be out, an onset of windy, warm weather days or weeks later may rekindle it.

These fires also take a human toll: Every year, 55-60 percent of all burns treated at the Oregon Burn Center in Portland are the result of backyard debris burning. According to the Burn Center, nearly every adult treated said they had always used gasoline to burn their piles and nothing had ever happened in the past.

If your clothes should ignite, STOP, DROP, AND ROLL to smother the flames. NEVER, ever use gasoline or other accelerants to start or increase your burn. It isn't the gas that ignites; it's the fumes that the gas emits onto your clothing.

Done correctly, trimming landscape vegetation and taking other steps to create "defensible space" - a zone around the house cleared of flammable materials that will slow or stop flames and embers from reaching the structure - can greatly boost the odds of your home surviving a wildfire.

Tips on how to create defensible space can be found on the Keep Oregon Green website, www.keeporegongreen.com. Local rural fire departments, the Office of State Fire Marshal, and Oregon Department of Forestry offices are additional resources for this topic.

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Questions regarding the Private Forests News service?
Contact:

Kevin Weeks
Oregon Department of Forestry
kweeks at odf.state.or.us
(503) 945-7427


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