A local Fire Information Board appears

July 1, 2008, about 7:30pm

At the intersection of Tassajara Road and Cachagua Road, a new fire information board has appeared. On our way back from town, Martha and I stop and examine the information found thereupon, along with many of our neighbors, chatting and kicking around rumors.

A member of the Church Family (of Church Creek) has a house near The Caves, where the fire line looks much less than a mile away.

In passing, he mentions a fire retardant product that the forest service uses to spray on houses. If the stuff is available - apparently the fire crews at Andrew Molera State Beach DO have some - and they can do so safely, spraying on this retardant seems to keep heat from the fire at bay, thus minimizing the risk of the structure burning. But he doesn't know the name of the product. He does know that you can't go - say - to Costco, and buy it.

Once we get home, I do some internet research and find some references to the material. It's called "Barricade II" and it's made by a company in Florida. A distributor, Hallywood Fire Equipment, in Ukiah, has it in stock, as does the manufacturer. 

John Smiley made a reference to it in a essay he wrote, called "Observations on the Kirk Complex Fire, 1999".  Smiley and fellow Big Creek Reserve steward Feynner Arias worked the fire nearly every day and produced a rather well-documented information series, replete with pictures, on the fire and the subsequent recovery of the vegetation.

Here's what Smiley said: "As the fire front descended from Highlands Camp toward the Stewart cabin, a team went up and sprayed "barricade" gel on the cabin. A couple of days later they applied the gel to the private owners' cabins at Devil's Creek Flat. 

The gel is something like transparent Elmer's glue, and seems to stick to any surface. It needs to be rehydrated by sprinkling water on it, but lasts for many days. When the fire came through a few days later the Stewart cabin survived. 

The Devil's Creek Flat cabins also survived when the fire descended from the north. The gel was washed off the cabins a couple of weeks later with no visible effect on the wood. These new techniques for fire fighting open up a practical, low-cost avenue for dealing with wildfires: save structures individually and let the brush burn."

Based on the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) on the company's website, my guess is that the material is a combination of polyacrylamide, vegetable oil, lecithin and something like guar gum. Polyacrylamide is the key ingredient. If you have kids, you've probably seen it before, as an absorbent in diapers. Also, it's been sold in small packets as a solution to keeping your houseplants hydrated, by sprinkling the crystals into the soil. Once water is added, the crystals swell up, like little, clear ice chunks. 

They make a kit for homeowners, so that you can apply it with a garden hose and a special nozzle. I, for one, am going to check it out.

To the right, is a photo of the map from the board. The Jamesburg/Cachagua structure protection group area is th yellow outline, to the right and near the top of the blue line. 

The Fire Line, as of today, is relatively easy to see in red and labeled "Basin Complex."

The house of the neighbor mentioned above is near or within the lower purple oval, lower right of the blue line.

Given the proximity of the fire to The Caves - where his house is - you can see why he's concerned!