Vulcan Wildfire Management conceived and
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT created the first specialised wildfire ground crew in
South Africa in partnership with the Western Cape
Government. The experience gained in working the
frontline of wildfires combined with years of research
into international best practice has resulted in Vulcan
creating a risk assessment and mitigation system that
highlights the areas of exposure on a property and
advises on practical solutions that can reduce that
exposure to, and the resulting damage from, wildfires.
This is called Check Protect Survive™ and is offered
at a consulting level to individual homes through
to large landowners and communities. Vulcan also
offers various training courses through their Vulcan
Training division.
[email protected] | www.vulcanwildfire.co.za
This incident highlights the importance of defendable
space, which is the creation of space around a home
or property that will result in a fire losing momentum
and dropping in intensity. This allows firefighters
the opportunity to safely take on the fire, or the
homeowners themselves, having sheltered from the
ember storm, can come out at the safest opportunity
to extinguish the spot fires that would have started in
the surrounding areas.
A fuel- or firebreak is not enough to stop a wildfire.
In fact, a fuel break is not meant to stop a wildfire
– it is designed to slow a wildfire down in the right
conditions and give access to fire crews to attempt
suppression tactics.
In order to create defendable space, one needs to
clear fine fuels from around one’s home, keep grass
areas trimmed and watered, rake up and reduce leaf
litter, remove flammable organic litter from around the
house (especially gutters and roofs), and trim shrubs.
There should be no shrubs over one metre high next
to or below windows. Trim tree branches that overhang
the house, and think about the ease with which fire
might be able to spread from the ground into tree
tops. Removing lower branches of trees and pruning
shrubs so that their tops are well away from the lower
branches of trees is advisable.
When designing a garden, use suitable plants with
low flammability potential, and retain soil moisture in
on the edge of the WUI, it was the storm raining fiery
embers down into the landscape that caused so much
of the damage. Embers landed in gardens, igniting the
vegetation, and radiant heat shattered glass windows,
garden beds. Use the layout of the property to create
open spaces to protect the property; these can be
driveways, pools, tennis courts, gravelled areas, mown
lawns, grazed paddocks and natural water features.
allowing embers to spread. Embers also landed in gutters, The landscape that is created around the property may
igniting organic debris, and hose flames entered the very well determine its future.
roof space, causing homes to burn. These homes ignited
other homes close by and so the fire storm spread,
bringing the fire and destruction to those who had
thought themselves safely away from the flaming front.
Patrick Ryan
All photographs - Knysna Fires 2017
Vulcan Wildfire Intelligence Task Force
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