Tall Dry Grasses In Coal Creek Canyon.
We have had a wet spring, which has meant reduced wildland fire danger to this point. It also means that vegetation and grasses have grown tall.
As the year continues these grasses cure (they die and dry out) and this cured grass can act like tinder; spreading fire rapidly. Grasses can dry out within a single hour after a rainstorm.
Summer heat is bringing lightning storms, and we’ve started to experience lightning strike fires here in the canyon. Conditions change quickly, so please recognize this change as we transition from a wet year to a fuel-laden year.
Flashy fuels – like grasses – ignite easily and allow fire to spread quickly. Tall flashy fuels produce much larger flames, and those flames threaten your homes and structures and preclude firefighters from directly attacking those fires. Fires in tall grasses lead to flame lengths taller than people.
Have you kept your grasses short around your property? Mowed your lawns? Weed-whacked your grasses? Don’t let cured grasses pose a threat to your property or exit routes. Keep grasses short, especially the closer they are to structures. Build a fuel break between meadows and your home.
Please look around your property to the patches of vegetation you see. Fire mitigation isn’t just about limbing and thinning trees, it is reducing all fuels.
