Entiat Fire

[Russ McDonald]

Hey Rainier10, here is a quick answer for you. The skinny on your insurance thing is since you don't have a fire department that is responsible for your property you pay more for insurance. It's is kind of " no man's land" since the DNR and the local fire district dont collect taxes on your property they don't promise to save your home. Those areas of no man's land departments don't like to fight fire there because they aren't getting paid to protect it.
Now if there is a big fire there the state will foot the bill. If there is a fire around your house and they have a overhead team, they will do a assessment of your home to see if it is defendable or not. If they think they can save it with little to no prep work they will try to save the house the best they can.  If you don't have  defensible space or your home will risk lives to save it they will write it off.

That is correct.  It is all about defensible space around you house or cabin http://www.dnr.wa.gov/RecreationEducation/FirePreventionAssistance/Pages/Home.aspx this link probably has the information your looking for.

[Rainier10]

Oh I am aware of defensible space, I have done a bunch of work on my place over the last 15 years to help in the event of a fire.  I have 20 acres of forest land and the pine beetle was wreaking havoc on the trees when we first bought the property.  I was just suprised to hear from cougkilr and elkslayer069 that DNR was now going to protect property before the trees.  That was a change from what I was told a few years back.  It is great to hear that human life is top priority and second is property after being told in the past that the resources came before my personal property.  I have been preaching to our homeowners association that it is their responsibility to create a defensible space because in the event of a fire we were on our own as far as our cabins go, but it sounds like that is no longer true and DNR will come in and save our cabins before moving on the the forest above us.

[firefighter4607]

It looked like they changed the law in 2010 to start charging a fee to land owners whom own land that are forest or that are near forests. Still you have to remeber where the nearest DNR station is to you. Say you live in Goldendale and you have a cabin in the Simcoes. DNR has a station in Goldendale but if you have a fire in the mountians it could take 1/2 hour to an hour just to get on scene. That is if the station is manned and it was called in right when it started. With a red flag warning and depending on the rate of spead on the fire it could consume a few acres by the time the first unit arrives on scene. During that time it could consume your home. It is a risk you take when you own a home in BFE. Maybe if you have enough people interested your home owners association could start your own small fire department or buy a wildlife equiped truck to protect the area. You might even be able to apply for some sort of grant to help buy one.

[Rainier10]

Thanks firefighter, we did check into starting our own response team, one owner even had a firetruck to donate to the association.  It didn't go through though, maintenance costs and getting people to volunteer were the issues.  Everyone thinks it is a great idea right up until they actually have to do something then they are busy.  For now I will pay the higher rates, at least I can get coverage and maintain my own defensible space.  I have an email in to DNR as of yesterday asking if they really are going to defend my cabin in case of fire, I will let you know what I hear back from them, if it is an email response I will post it.

[danderson]

 After 26 years of firefighting  in rural Kittitas County I can tell you that the number one priority in fighting fire in the urban interface is safety, in other words risk nothing to save nothing, risk alot to save alot, theres lots of conditions that affect the outcome to a large fire, weather its in a remote location with narrow roads having one way in and one way out, weather conditions, fuel types, building construction, and defensible space around the structures, the DNR typically doesn't do structure protection, that's not there specialty, structure protection is left up to a trained engine company usually from a volunteer or paid district, if the fires within a protection district, if the fires outside a protection district the structure protection may be provided by a neighboring fire department as part of its mutual aid agreement, if theres one in place, if the fire grows in size were all available resource's cannot contain it and if conditions are present for continued spread of it boundaries, the state will take over control of the fire with a management team, (state mobilization) Then resources from all over the state come in and manage the fire from a operations center, one thing that you might do as a community is go to the local rural fire department and look into getting fire protection coverage, if outside the boundaries of the department it could be contracted, another good program is firewising your property's, there is a program in kittitas county that has a 50% matching grant program to help rural community's reduce fuel loads in community's, or for individual homeowners.