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     NEWS ABOUT SAN JUAN COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT NO. 3

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List of stories about Fire District No. 3

PART TWO:
Preparing for Wildfires

PART THREE:
How Safe is Your Home?

PART FOUR:
Wildfires: Steps to Reduce Your Risk

PART FIVE: Building a Firewise Community.

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First in a series of five articles

This is the first part of a five-part series of articles provided by the San Juan Island Fire Department in cooperation with the Washington Department of Natural Resources on a new project to reduce the threat of potential wildfires to local homes and residents.

Are We At Risk?

By Bill McLaughlin, Fire Chief of San Juan Island Fire Department

posted 02/12/01
Last year, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources rated San Juan Island as the most threatened community in Northwest Washington for wildfires. Several subdivisions were rated as "high" risk. They were the only subdivisions in the region to receive that rating. Recently, the US Forest Service added San Juan Island to its "Communities at Risk from Wildfires" list.

So are we at risk of a major wildfire consuming homes and putting lives at risk? The combination of increasing fuels, increasing numbers of small fires starting and predictions of hot dry weather to come remind me of a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin is playing in his sandbox. An out of control airplane is heading straight toward an out of control train which is converging on a farmhouse where the farmer is unfittingly about to strike a match in his kitchen where the gas is leaking. Calvin's comment is "This ought to be good!" For our sake, we should all be saying, "We ought to be prepared."

" By most accounts...this has been the driest winter in Washington since the exceptionally dry winter of 1976-77 ...when precipitation and snowpack over the winter months was only around 50 percent of normal," according to the National Weather Service. It appears from the forecasts that there is but a snowball's chance in Los Angeles of having a normal rainfall year.

The Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has updated their summer forecast to include an 80 percent likelihood of warmer than normal or normal temperatures and a 75 percent likelihood of drier than normal or normal precipitation. Good news for hikers, bikers, boaters and tourists. Not so good news for firefighters.

Warm dry summers mean more grass and forest fires. And that means more risk to people who live in the woods and the firefighters who have to try to protect those houses. Fire is not new to the Western US. For several years, a small but increasingly vocal group of foresters has tried to get the word out. Suppressing wildland fires leads to a buildup of flammable vegetation, which leads to bigger fires.

Most folks know that some ecosystems require fire to keep the ecosystem stable. Periodic fires clean out invasive undergrowth and increase the nutrients available to mature trees. Some species, such as the bristlecone pine need fire to regenerate. What many people don.t realize is that the San Juan Islands have these fire dependant ecosystems.

Early explorers described the landscape of the Sans Juans and southern Vancouver Island as predominated by oak woodlands, grasslands and mature fir and cedar forests. Shrubs were less common than they are today, as were stands of smaller fir and pines. Good examples of the changing ecosystem are visible along Cattle Point road as it winds through American Camp.

The large stands of second growth fir have impenetrable shrubs beneath then. Further down the road, the lodgepole pines have sprung up in dense thickets. The problem for firefighters (and homeowners) is that fires burn very hot and spread very quickly through these fuels.

In the past, lower intensity fires would burn through the grasslands, killing shrubs and small trees, but allowing the mature trees to survive. Lightning started many of these fires, but many were also lit by the local Indians. The oak savannahs provided good wildlife habitat, and the acorns were ground for meal.

The buildup of highly flammable vegetation has been coupled by a significant increase in the number of homes at risk. Last year alone, more than $30 million dollars worth of new construction was added to San Juan Island outside of the Town of Friday Harbor. Not only does this mean more homes for firefighters to protect, but it also means more fires are likely to start.

The majority of fires are human caused. Fires start when burn piles get out of control, or car fires spread to the wildland, or when fireworks are used carelessly. Only five out of 98 wildfires occurring on San Juan Island in the past five years were caused by lightning. Aggressive suppression by the fire department has kept all but one of these fires to ten acres or less.

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