ISSAQUAH — Tools leaning against a garden shed. Pine cones and wood chips flanking the house. Arborvitae providing a natural fence between neighbors.
When Cat Robinson scanned these surroundings at Mary and Bob Fransen’s home along the Issaquah Alps, she saw fuels for fire.
Robinson, with Eastside Fire & Rescue, is trained to identify these pathways for fire and help residents reduce the risk of losing their home.
These assessments, free to those within the fire district, are one of the ways residents can prepare for wildfire season, which is expected to bring above-average fire risk in Central and Eastern Washington in June and Western Washington in July.
They are an important tool as hotter, drier summers in the Northwest fueled by climate change have led to more wildfires and longer fire seasons.
Climate change isn’t the only factor. More than a century of suppressing wildfires, removing Indigenous burning practices, harvesting large trees and more fire-tolerant species and more human-caused ignitions all contribute. Meanwhile, more human development has moved into the state’s forests, grasslands and sagebrush-steppe.
But there are steps people can take to reduce risks to home and family.
Where should you start?
Find your local agency at mil.wa.gov/alerts#local to sign up for emergency alerts. These will notify you of important messages from emergency managers, including evacuation notices.
You can find tips to prepare your home for wildfire, build an evacuation kit and who to contact by county at the state’s resource library: dnr.wa.gov/community-wildfire-resilience-resource-library.
Find important documents — like birth certificates, insurance documents, home and vehicle titles — and put them in a place where they are easy to find if you need to evacuate. The Department of Natural Resources recommends visiting ready.gov/kit for tips on what to include in an evacuation kit.
Renters and homeowners can sign up for a free home assessment on the state’s “Wildfire Ready Neighbors” website: st.news/home-assessments.
Local fire and conservation districts, like King Conservation District and Eastside Fire & Rescue, also conduct assessments.
Are you ready for the smoke?
Check Washington Smoke Blog — wasmoke.blogspot.com — for the latest air quality updates and a five-day smoke forecast.
Public health experts typically recommend people stay indoors when air quality levels are considered “unhealthy,” or when air quality index, or AQI, exceeds 150.
People at higher risk from smoke — including children, those over 65, those with asthma or respiratory and heart conditions, and pregnant people — should stay indoors when AQI hits 100.
It’s a good idea to start preparing for wildfire smoke before it arrives. Products like filters and air purifiers will sell out.
Research has shown wildfire smoke exposure can exacerbate certain lung diseases, like asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said Dr. Coralynn Sack, a pulmonologist and assistant professor in environmental and occupational medicine at the University of Washington. There’s also evidence that acute wildfire smoke exposure may increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases like stroke, heart attacks, arrhythmia and heart failure.
Researchers are also starting to make the link between smoke exposure and an increased risk of dementia and reproductive outcomes, such as low birth weight and decreased sperm motility.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has guides on how to pick portable air cleaners and furnace or HVAC filters used in a home at: epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/guide-air-cleaners-home.
Be sure to select a HEPA air purifier that is effective at removing small particles, Sack said. People should avoid the ionizing air cleaners which produce ozone, which can cause lung damage, Sack said.
If you have an existing HVAC unit, make sure you have extra filters on hand.
You can also build a fan filter using a box fan, a furnace filter and masking tape. Use a 20-inch box fan and a filter of the same size, either a MERV 13 or FPR 10 filter.
More tips for constructing the box fan filter are available at: seattletimes.com/seattle-news/how-to-prepare-for-wildfire-smoke-in-your-home-car-and-while-outdoors/.
Before smoke arrives, try to stock up on groceries and necessary medications. If people do need to go out, Sack recommends wearing an N95 mask and reviewing online guides on how to properly fit a mask and ensure there aren’t leaks.
What can you expect from a home assessment?
The Fransens have lived in the shadow of the densely wooded Issaquah Alps since 1986.
It wasn’t until a recent stay in a Montana Airbnb that they started thinking about how their home could fare in a fire. There, Mary Fransen said, it seemed the property owners had done the most they could to reduce risk.
The Fransens completed the Wildfire Safe Eastside request form, which asks a few questions about where they live, and Robinson, with Eastside Fire & Rescue, responded to set a time for the assessment within a couple of weeks.
For a little over an hour, Robinson walked their property, documenting potential hazards through photos and notes on an iPad. She looked to the roof: asphalt, something that will provide great protection in a fire, she said.
Just below the roof, she zoomed in on the gable vents.
The most common way that homes burn in a wildfire is tiny windblown embers, Robinson said. They land on and around a home on vulnerable items that ignite and then spread the fire.
Vents are a main vulnerability.
The mesh screen on the Fransens’ vents was ¼ inch, the standard for most construction. Robinson recommended replacing it with ⅛ inch metal mesh — holes fine enough that most embers can’t penetrate and a material that won’t melt on impact.
“A lot of people, when I come to their house they turn their back on their house, they look out at the forest and they say, ‘I’m worried about that,’” Robinson said.
Instead, they should focus on the home itself and the first 30 feet from the home.
She urged them to look at the home with an eye for where embers could settle and whether that surface is flammable — like the wood trim around the Fransens’ windows — and consider replacing with a nonflammable material.
She identified some changes they could make to break up the path for fire: getting rid of arborvitae, English holly and other flammable plants; reducing “ladder fuels,” or vegetation that could introduce fire into the canopies of trees or the home; replacing wood chips along the home with dirt, stone pavers or bricks; and removing a flammable doormat.
From her survey, she will produce a report with a set of recommendations for mitigation around the home.
“You can elect to do them all, do one, do none,” Robinson explained. “We encourage you to do as many as you can, but we also recognize that costs money.”
King Conservation District has a cost-share program to help residents complete some wildfire mitigation work. You can check with the state Department of Natural Resources and other local conservation districts for this assistance.
Is your home insurance adequate?
Check to see if you have adequate insurance coverage to rebuild your home from the ground up — this includes debris removal, construction and temporary housing.
The additional living expense coverage isn’t always included in a home policy and it may have a time or cost cap. The state Office of the Insurance Commissioner recommends having two years of coverage.
Your insurance agent should be able to walk you through what you may need.
About two-thirds of residents with “significant” damage in the Gray and Oregon Road fires in Spokane County in 2023 were likely underinsured, said Aaron VanTuyl, a spokesperson for the insurance commissioner office. There are still 102 claims “open” and at least 43 of those will run out of living expense coverage by Aug. 18, according to VanTuyl.
Make a detailed inventory of everything in your home. An app from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners allows you to catalog your personal items. You can also walk through your home and take a video to give an idea of what’s in your home if you need to file a claim.
Material from The Seattle Times archives was used in this story.
