FOREST FIRE PREVENTION
Every year we are seeing how average temperatures continue to rise and rains are increasingly scarce. This fact has a direct impact on the state of the vegetation and the humidity of the soil, with harsh consequences on agricultural crops and forest masses, where the risk of fire increases significantly.
PREVENTION OF FIRE IN HOUSES IN FOREST ENVIRONMENTS BY THE OWNERS
These fires are especially dangerous for homes located in forest environments, which, if not properly defended, can be seriously affected by the fire.
When a fire breaks out near our homes and an evacuation of its inhabitants is carried out, there is always concern about knowing in what condition we will find the house when the fire is controlled. We cannot guarantee that it will not be reduced to ashes, but we can carry out certain measures that allow us to preserve our home in the face of a catastrophe of such magnitude.
The role played by the owners of the houses near the forests is vital when it comes to the prevention and spread of fire. For this reason, it is important that communities in urban-forest interface areas take the necessary measures to defend themselves in case of fire. The most important are:
1. Write the Self-protection Plan
According to the indications of the Basic Civil Protection Planning Directive (Royal Decree 893/2013), self-protection must be implemented. For this, a Self-protection plan detailing the action protocol in any emergency situation. This protocol is used to determine the human and material resources available for fire prevention, guarantee evacuation, enforce current regulations, guarantee the reliability of the means of protection, minimize both material and personal damage, etc.
2. Execute perimeter vegetation management
The perimeter vegetation of our house is an essential element in the spread of fire and can be decisive in preventing the fire from reaching it. For this reason, it is essential that vegetation management be carried out closer to the home in order toreduce the chances of fire spread until the building. The urban-forest interface zones are made up of built-up areas (streets, roads, houses, etc.) and areas with forest fuel that will need to be treated.
3. Search for dangerous elements on your property and remove them
The ideal would be to take into account certain considerations regarding the prevention and propagation of fires with the construction of the house. Unfortunately they are not always taken into account or it may be that when we acquire the house the building is already there. However, it is necessary to implement a modification that includes improvements on construction elements and hazardous materials or with a greater risk of affectation by fire or even their elimination. For example, using intumescent paints, fireproof mortars on beams or pillars, among others.
4. Practice pyro-gardening and avoid the accumulation of fuels
Thepyro-gardening is based on creating gardens with species that are resistant to fire and thatact as a brake against the advance of fire towards the house. Usually, we find houses whose fence is made with fencing with synthetic materials or even cypresses and pines, highly flammable species that would accelerate the spread of fire towards the building. The fundamentals of pyro-gardening are based on creating separation walls that prevent or slow down the advance of fire with less combustible species such as ivy or laurels.
5. Know the evacuation routes in an emergency
Before afire emergency evacuation routes need to be established and known. It is based on establishing those paths that will allow evacuees to get away from danger in the shortest time and in the most orderly way possible. thanks to theseEvacuation routes we managed to protect people's well-being in the presence of a fire and direct them to a safer place.
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Protecting your home is in your hand and at OFFSET TRAIL we want to help you make it possible. Get in touch with us to assess the vulnerability of your home and protect it from any fire hazard.
FIRE PREVENTION BY MUNICIPALITIES
In the same way that occurs with individuals or owners of homes located in forest areas, it is also the task of the municipalities to carry out a series of actions that ensure the well-being and safety of the inhabitants, that prevent these dangerous situations and that reduce the effects on the environment. For this, the administration has at its disposal measures such as:
1. Local Forest Fire Prevention Plans (PLPIF)
In accordance with article 55.3 of Law 3/1993, local entities with forest land in their territory are obliged to draw up Local Forest Fire Prevention Plans. Is about make a plan in which the measures, actions and infrastructures are defined, designed and managed to reduce the number of forest fires and the surface affected by them, reduce the probability that they occur, minimize detection and response times and reduce the danger.
2. Municipal Action Plans against the risk of Forest Fires (PAMIF)
A Municipal Action Plan against the Risk of Forest Fires is a document that details the actions in situations of high risk and danger of forest fires in a municipality, establishing the measures to be adopted and the necessary resources to deal with the emergency that ensures the protection of forest fires. citizens, goods and the forest environment of a given municipal territory.
3. Plan of Actions for the Prevention and Fight against Forest Fires
The Action Plans for the Prevention and Fight against Forest Fires They are the documents that include the set of measures intended to alleviate the devastating consequences of the fires in the economic, social and environmental fields.
4. Training for forest surveillance volunteers
the figure offorest surveillance volunteer It is in charge of carrying out surveillance tasks regarding the prevention of forest fires and, in addition, it is in charge of informing and raising awareness among citizens regarding the risk of fires. In this sense, at Offset Trail, we offer the training service to forest surveillance volunteers to ensure that they optimally fulfill their functions in fire prevention.