1. Wildfire Is Your New Nextdoor Neighbor

 

Emigration Canyon is a textbook example of what firefighters call a wildland-urban interface environment. WUI for short. It’s a residential area built beyond the relatively controlled settings of city and suburb. Our community is defined by its varied topography, proximity to open lands, predominantly natural vegetation, challenging physical access, limited municipal infrastructure, and the difficulty of delivering what services are available. Most of us find these attributes irresistible, but each holds an element of increased risk, especially when something catches fire. Fire is native to this landscape; we and our homes are not.

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2. Our Natural Surroundings Are Unnaturally Overgrown

Our homes are embedded in native vegetation that evolved in the presence of fire. Unfortunately, much of it is now in a thoroughly unnatural state following a century of vigorous fire suppression. From the streamside riparian zone up through sagebrush meadows and oak-maple thickets to the subalpine stands of aspen and fir, every acre that hasn’t been recently cleared by human hands is choked with dried fuel. Hillsides that once burned frequently and at low intensity are now primed for explosive, high-intensity wildfire.

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3. Strong Wind x Steep Terrain = Fast Moving Fire

Fire moves with the wind, and it moves far faster uphill than it does across level ground. Wind and steep terrain make fire much more dangerous, and Emigration Canyon has plenty of both. Our topography makes the canyon a natural chimney, funneling and accelerating the winds that occur as weather fronts move across the state. Each summer these elements converge and compound when high temperatures and low atmospheric humidity combine with Red Flag winds and tinder-dry vegetation, providing ideal conditions for runaway fire growth and extremely rapid movement.

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4. Climate Change Is the Ultimate Wildfire Wild Card

Fire risk changes seasonally in ways that are well understood, but climate change is disrupting these familiar patterns in ways that are far less predictable. Average winter snowpack is declining. Less runoff is reaching the canyon streams and aquifers. Fire seasons are starting earlier and ending later. Fires are becoming larger and more destructive, and the peak demand for firefighting resources is straining firehouse staffing and municipal budgets across the western U.S.

5. Our Fire Department Is First Rate, but Its Resources Are Finite

Our community is extraordinarily well-served by Unified Fire Authority, our local fire department. UFA has built a fire station in the canyon, equipped it to fight wildland fires, and staffed it with trained first responders. Moreover, UFA has developed mutual aid relationships with firefighting organizations across the state and region to provide the additional equipment and manpower needed for very large fires. Unfortunately, such fires are now occurring simultaneously across the West. Every season, new fires break out when every firefighter, truck, and plane is already committed.

6. Home Fire Survival is Every Homeowner’s Responsibility

The takeaway for canyon homeowners is this: we must prepare for an inevitable wildfire that will overwhelm the available firefighting resources. It’s only a matter of time. Our homes—every canyon home—should be prepared to survive the passage of a fire front without fire department assistance.

The good news is that survival is largely determined by specific attributes of a structure and its immediate surroundings that are very much within our control. If we carefully remove flammable materials from our home’s exteriors, prevent windborne embers from infiltrating them, and create a buffer zone of defensible space around them we can greatly increase the odds that when the smoke finally clears, our homes will still be standing.

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Here’s What You Can Do Right Now

1. Learn all you can about wildfire risk and home fire safety. Start with the links and downloads below!

2. Schedule a home assessment with a local firefighter by emailing Unified Fire Authority at WildfireRiskAssessment@unifiedfire.org

3. Eliminate flammable construction materials from your home’s exterior

4. Eliminate access points for wind driven embers

5. Remove leaves, pine needles and other flammable materials from your roof, gutters, and from within 5 feet of the home

6. Create defensible space by appropriately reducing potential fuels within 30-foot and 100-foot zones around the home

7. Take advantage of community activities that reduce the costs of fuel reduction, like our annual chipping and Firewise events

8. Sign up for CodeRED, the township’s emergency communications service!

9. Prepare for emergency evacuation by creating a family evacuation plan

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More Resources