By Forest Puha
Wildfires are scary,
furious and incredibly destructive. As of this writing, the effort to
control wildfires in Northern California and around the United States
are pushing local, state and federal firefighters to their limit. For
people living on farms and other rural areas, adopting firefighting
techniques to keep their homes same can often mean the difference
between losing everything and staying alive. Although I’m not a
firefighter, every year I gather and burn tumbleweeds, pull clumps of
plants away from the house, trim low-hanging tree branches, create
some firebreaks and other routine fire maintenance expected of me as
a rural homeowner. This helps my local fire department and my
neighbors so they don’t have to automatically divert resources to
defend my home, and it helps me for concentrating on other important
aspects of my fire preparedness, like planning for evacuation.
In this article,
I’ll examine some tools I have to remove debris and burn weeds that
everyone should have. All of these tools can be purchased brand new
or found at local garage sales and thrift shops for pennies.
Everything I discuss was based on my experience using them.
For widespread convenience, I've posted images are of
products that can be bought at Wal-Mart, Amazon or Harbor Freight. As of this writing, the prices I've listed for everything were what I paid at the time for the items. You don’t have to
buy all of these at once; what is important is that you work up a
collection of tools that works for you and your needs, so that you
can be prepared for fire.
A Bottle of Water
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A refillable bottle for drinking water. I own several, so this was "free". |
It sounds funny, but this really is one of the most
important tools you can have. You’ll want this at all times,
whether in a canteen you carry or a bottle you stash at your feet.
Stay hydrated, soak your clothes, and reduce your fatigue.
Safety Glasses
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Impact-rated safety glasses from Harbor Freight. $1.79 at most stores. |
Fires generate lots
of smoke that gets into my eyes. They’ll also pop and crackle,
sending up sparks that land on my face. Eye protection is an absolute
must. These impact glasses are slightly wider than normal safety
sunglasses, with more of a rectangular shape and clear side panels
that cover more of my eyes and cheeks. They also have adjustable
earpieces, so you can shorten them for children or lengthen them
while wearing a mask. I prefer clear versions; they also come in
various tints to act as sunglasses.
N95 Respirator Masks
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3M's N95 respirator with valve. Available at most stores for under $15. |
Fires generate a lot
of smoke, and sometimes the smoke blows back on you. Like the water
bottle, keep these on you at all times. They won’t completely
eliminate the smoke and the smell, but the mask will filter out
enough to let you breathe and get away.
OSHA-rated Hardhat
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The Occunomix “Vulcan” Cowboy Style Hard Hat. Available at Amazon for $18.50. |
I didn’t use to believe
that these were necessary for fire prevention around my house, until one day I was
cutting off some very small tree limbs around my house and a branch fell on my head. Four hours later, as I held an icepack to my
throbbing head while lying down on my living room floor, I came to a
realization: hard hats ARE necessary. Go figure.
As the above picture shows,
they come in multiple styles nowadays and for pretty cheap.
Protective gear pays for itself over time, and with the Cowboy and
Construction hardhats I’m two-fifths of the way toward making my
own personal Village People collection. Win-win!
Leather Gloves
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Leather
gloves with cotton backing. $7.99 for a 5-pack at Harbor Freight.
|
You need gloves when
working around fire; things get hot to the touch. Avoid non-leather
gloves as they’ll get hot enough to melt and stick to your skin,
causing severe burns and worse. Leather gloves also come in
arm-length and full-wrap styles, so you can cover as much of your
hands and arms as you like.
100% Cotton Pants
and Shirt
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“Dickies” double-layer carpenter pants from Wal-Mart. $35.99 at most stores. |
I prefer
double-layer carpenter pants from Dickies and Carhatt. While they
don’t offer as much protection as leather and firefighter pants
would, these carpenter pants do protect my legs and feet from burning
embers and scratches, can be found anywhere and they’re pretty
cheap. Always remember to wear 100% cotton clothing when fighting
fire; polyester, nylon and other synthetic material will burn, melt
and stick to your skin in horrible ways.
The rake is one of
the most ubiquitous tools in a homeowner’s firefighting arsenal. It
can pull together burning weeds, pull down burning branches, and push
ashes into a pile for easy watering. As with the shovel, spend the
extra money on a fiberglass or metal handle rake; they’re more fire
resistant than the regular wooden ones and can be recovered if
dropped into hot embers.
Leather Boots
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Brahma
unisex “Owden” leather boots. $19.97 at most stores.
|
Footwear is
absolutely important when fighting fires. Because your feet will be
stepping on, stepping over and touching fire, extremely hot ground
and other dangerous material, you’ll need footwear that can handle
abuse.
These Owden boots are made entirely of leather with metal
grommets and a semi-rubber sole which will hold up to most small
fires around your home and keep your feet and ankles protected from
contact burns and scratches. They don’t have a steel toe or steel
shank, which means they don’t weigh much and are very comfortable
to move around in, but they also lack the protection you’d get from
more expensive boots.
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Danner Men’s Wildland Tactical Firefighter Work Boot. Starting at $237.65 at Amazon.com. |
If you want to do
serious firefighting—assisting your neighbors, becoming a volunteer
firefighter, controlled burns in national forest—here's a sample of specialized boots for the task. These come with a metal shank down the
sole of your foot that can block nails and glass you step on. Prices
go up as features are added, but quality tools repeatedly
pay for themselves over time.
A Reliable Shovel
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56-inch Fiberglass Shovel from Harbor Freight. $9.99 at most stores. |
One of the most
useful tools for fighting a fire. You can shovel burning brush,
shovel dirt upon fire, cut and split bushes, dig trenches, dig fire
pits, use as a hiking stick, balance across your shoulders and tie
things on the back, use as a visible marker, use as a camera monopod…
the list goes on.
Like all the tools in this list, fiberglass or
metal handles are preferable to wood, which lessens the chances of
the tool catching on fire or breaking in the middle of a project.
Fiberglass shovels also weight a bit less than their wooden version
of equal length.
A Reliable Rake
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14-tin
Fiberglass Rake from Harbor Freight. $19.99 at most stores.
|
A Pulaski Axe
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34-inch Pulaski Axe from Harbor Freight. $24.99 at most stores. |
The Pulaski Axe,
also known as as the cutter mattock, is one of the more unusual
firefighting tools in your arsenal. It consists of a sharpened
vertical axe head on one end, with a curved and sharpened horizontal
mattock blade on the other end. This allows the user to chop and
split tree branches, trunks and roots at various angles, and in
firefighting the mattock end can also be used as a makeshift rake and
hoe to pull apart and push away burning embers and brush.
I've found that the wooden versions are too heavy for my practical use; the one I
bought from Harbor Freight comes with a fiberglass handle and weighs
around 5 to 6 pounds altogether, which makes it relatively
lightweight and handy. I can pick it up and use it all day long.
A Chainsaw
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The Husqvarna 445 16-inch chainsaw. Around $250 at most hardware stores and Amazon. |
Finally, a chainsaw
is a basic tool every rural homestead should own. The above model happens to be one I own, but Stihl also makes reliable saws.
For chainsaws, bigger engines mean more reliable power, although the
bigger the chainsaw, the more expensive it becomes. I recommend a
16-inch bar chainsaw for the absolute minimum in cutting wood, but
others will recommend an 18 or 20-inch bar for a beginner. Keep in
mind that bars on chainsaws can be switched to be a few sizes larger
or smaller than the original, so you have some discretion in what you
need for your purposes. It’s no coincidence that the safety gear
for firefighters work perfectly when operating a chainsaw, and you’ll
also want to purchase a good pair of ear protectors so you don’t
lose your hearing while using it.
In addition to the
chainsaw, you’ll want storage containers for gasoline, two-cycle
oil to mix with the gasoline, and 30-weight bar oil to lubricate the
chain blades with, as well as spare parts, an owner’s manual and
tools to fix and adjust the chainsaw. Your local hardware store will
carry most or all of the things you need, and the rest can be ordered
by them or you from Amazon. Again, be careful and practice with your
chainsaw in normal and safe conditions, so that you can rely on it
and your own ability during a fire.
That covers the
basics for tools. In the next article, we’ll be discussing some
tactics and strategies to make your home and your land more
fireproof. Thanks for reading and stay safe!