Fred Richardson and Joyce Statz
On the 7th of January, Joyce Statz and Fred Richardson of the Austin Area Firewise Alliance were our speakers. Per their website, the Austin Area Firewise Alliance is a "volunteer, collaborative coalition of leaders of more than 30 neighborhoods, all dedicated to making their communities' wildfire resilient." Joyce and Fred presented a slide show discussing the fire risk in the Austin area. Using the Crabapple fire in Gillespie County last year, which consumed 10,000 acres, they showed it overlaid on the City of Austin and how devastating that type of fire would be. It could affect the area’s water supply if it was followed by mudslides, and the smoke from such a fire would be a danger as well. The smoke from the Crabapple fire reached Austin and affected people with asthma and other breathing problems. The Austin area has the same type of conditions as those that led to the devastating California fires last January – high winds and dry conditions. Under such circumstances, it’s hard to stop the outbreak of fires as there are so many ways they can be started. Fred discussed the 2011 fires in central Texas, which included the Bastrop complex fire, the fire at Steiner Ranch and several others, and how those fires strained the available resources. He also noted that after four cities in California, Austin is the fifth most at-risk city for urban wildfire. Houses are being built up against the grasslands in the east part of Travis County and the cedar on the western side of the county, but of which are susceptible to fire. Local grass and brush fires happen on a regular basis, and we have been lucky that they have not blossomed into something larger. Structures usually ignite from flying embers, which can travel far from the fire. The area of Cat Mountain in northwest Austin is one of the areas at high risk for wildfire and Fred demonstrated on a slide how such a fire could spread.
As set out in the above pictures, Fred and Joyce provided us with information on how to prepare our homes and harden them against fire. That is the best way to prevent fires from spreading. Some communities are also creating fire breaks around homes. For more information go to https://wildfire-austin.hub.arcgis.com/. To see what some Austin neighborhoods are doing about the wildfire risk, use the following links: