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Wildfire Protection for the Home

Sprinklers for your home's roof

I've often thought about how I might be able to rig up a lawn sprinkler to protect my roof from a wildland fire that has embers cascading down on my "kindling" roof made out of cedar shakes. Well, someone took it a step further and developed a system that connects to a rain gutter. Check out, Wildfire Agencies Seriously Looking at Sprinklers to Protect Structures.

Here in Washington state we are still getting smoke from the British Columbia Wildfires that have been burning for weeks at this point. The manufacturer of the system described above is Wildfire Automated Sprinkler Protection (WASP).  As previous fires have shown, the fire does not need to be immediately next door. Wind- driven burning embers can travel very long distances.  

The system is not cheap, but compared to the cost and hassle of replacing one's home...I went ahead an ordered a kit for our own home. Mitigation!

And, why would someone living in western Washington where it rains 8 to 9 months of the year buy one of these? See my op-ed from last month that was in the Seattle Times, Western Washington not immune from wildfire risk.

And, our personal home setting is easy to see in this drone video of my garden. Wait until the end (less than two minutes) and you will see how the green belt behind our home and my neighbor's wood shake roofs make for my immediate neighborly risks. 

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.
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