Officials on homeprotection options
While firefighters kept the devastating 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire out of Santa Cruz, officials say that under a worst-case scenario, virtually the entire city, all the way to the coast, could suffer the fate of Boulder Creek and Bonny Doon, the mountain communities ravaged by the flames.
With fire season starting in Northern California, homeowners in the Santa Cruz area have new options for protecting their houses and property, as skyrocketing wildfire risk from climate change drives innovation in fireprotection technology. The CZU firestorm, ignited in many places by lightning, highlighted both the problem of over-stretched firefighting resources, and the need for residents to do everything they can to protect their lives and homes.
But some of the homedefense products appearing on the market are far from one-size-fits-all, and in Santa Cruz County, fire experts say, some can do more harm than good.
It takes water
Take the W.A.S.P. “Gutter Mount Sprinkler System,” made in Canada and endorsed by many fire officials in heavily forested British Columbia, including Fire Chief Gord Schreiner of Comox Fire Rescue on Vancouver Island.
The easy-to-install technology is “a pretty simple concept but it’s very effective,” said Schreiner, whose department sells the product to homeowners and also installs it on houses as fires approach. But unlike in Santa Cruz County, water is widely plentiful in the Comox Valley via lakes, ponds, streams and hydrants, and Schreiner said B.C. firefighters’ use of sprinklers depends on water supply.
Down in the Santa Cruz area, Ben Lomond Fire Chief Stacie Brownlee recalled with frustration the use of jury-rigged sprinkler setups by some San Lorenzo Valley residents during the CZU fire. “It’s a huge issue,” Brownlee said. Water consumption by sprinklers drawing from community systems meant that in some cases firefighters lacked water pressure, and in others, water tanks on properties were drained long before any flames came close.
Santa Cruz Fire Department acting Fire Marshal Tim Shields said such sprinkler systems, if not run from tanks, could put firefighters in competition with residents for water.
“As you draw off that water supply you’re impacting the hydrants that we may need to access,” Shields said.
Other new products that are applied to properties and houses before fire comes may offer more promise, according to fire officials.
“Pre-treatment is a big deal. and it’s becoming a bigger deal,” said retired Menlo Park Fire District Chief Harold Schapelhouman, who organized a support effort for the Boulder Creek Fire Department during the CZU firestorm.