There was a fairly good turnout by residents of Genoa and its environs last week for a community wildfire safety meeting.
With the Los Angeles fires not long behind us and what promises to be a dry spring ahead it’s no surprise that people would be concerned about the dangers posed by blazes in the wildland.
Abnormally dry conditions have already reached northeastern Douglas County and there’s a section of moderate drought in central Lyon that’s poised to move southwest.
We’ve had some rain this spring, but that’s likely to encourage the cheat grass and shrubs that will dry into summer fuels.
The seasonal outlook isn’t particularly reassuring, with chances of above average temperatures and below average precipitation through June.
At the town hall on April 9, Nevada Division of Forestry Community Wildfire Defense Grant Coordinator Donald Lovejoy showed videos of how a wildfire spreads through embers.
The first video showed half-dollar size embers falling all around as firefighters worked to slow down the blaze. The second video showed what looked like doorbell camera footage of a home some ways from a wildfire that kept reigniting.
Firefighters would hose it down, but the embers would get in cracks in the home and the porch would start smoking again. In the final scene the embers had made their way into the roof of the porch and firefighters were pulling down burning boards.
There’s nothing quite so sobering as watching someone’s home, one of the most common symbols of stability collapse in flames.
But the point of last week’s seminar was to provide information for residents to help keep their property safe in the event of a wildfire.
There are lots of resources available to allow homeowners to help themselves, and now’s the best time to tackle that.
We’d suggest stopping by nevadafireinfo.org to start with. Besides offering timely information about ongoing fires and the University of Nevada’s wildfire cameras, a deeper dive leads to the state’s Living with Fire information.