August 1, 2024 • 19 mins
YOU CAN MAKE YOUR HOME SAFER FROM WILDFIRES And I've got a couple on today who started a grassroots organization to do just that. They've even got a great website with good tips for making sure your home is far less likely to catch fire in case of a fire in your neighborhood. Toni and Don Moore are on at 1pm to discuss. Find those tips by clicking here.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you guys listened to the show, you know that
I am constantly talking about fire danger and how to
you know, make sure that your house is covered and
that you've videotaped all your stuff inside your house. But
I got a great email yesterday from a couple, Don
and Tony Moore who have created an all volunteer organization
in their neighborhood to help their neighbors and others learn
how to mitigate fire risk. And they're joining me on
(00:22):
the phone now. Don, first of all, welcome to the show,
both you and and Tony.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, thank you very much. Man. You every day your
show gets better and better. Today is going to be
the top sill ever?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Is that because you're on it? Is that what's happening?
You've got I've got the best guest stars today?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Is that absolutely? Man? Thank you for having us on today.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, I love what you guys are doing and I
want to find out tell me my audience what no
flow co fire mitigation posse is?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
All right, so no flow code just so we can
get through that. That's North Flora, Saint Colorado. However, that's where
we started out. Our footprints is growing much bigger than that.
Our mission statement is basically to assist private property owners
within the wildland urban interface with fire mitigation, fire awareness,
and forced health. We want to make sure we implement
(01:15):
the tenants and goals of the National Wildland Fire Cohesive Strategy,
and then we want to make our community safer from danger,
improve property appearance, and have a little fun while we're
doing it.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
So let's talk about let's do the financial benefits of
fire mitigation first, because on Tony sent me a bunch
of websites and what kind of insurance impact does it have?
If you do a property assessment and you come back
and say, Okay, they've done everything they can do, does
that have an impact on your homeowner's insurance?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Short answers probably know. And the reason I'm stating that
is because you know the insurance companies they're actuarials sit
in Hartford, Connecticut or Keyakuk, Iowa, and they look at
fire maps and Teller County is one of the highest
rated wildfire risk maps in the state. So of course
our insurance is going to be higher. What we're trying
(02:09):
to do, though, is connect various properties so we can
call them pods, so we can reduce the fuel load
within a neighborhood instead of just one single property.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
So what kind of stuff we'll go ahead, Tony, I.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Definitely to say. Currently, one of the reasons that Coloraden's
are having such a hard time with their insurance has
to do with what happened in the past as well
as the probability of something negative happening in the future.
Two big things have happened. The Marshall Fire of twenty
twenty one burned down eleven hundred beautiful, big, nearly million
(02:46):
dollar homes, some of them were over a million dollar
homes in the Boulder area. That's a huge hit for
all of those insurers. Another thing is the hail storms
we continue to get in Colorado. So many roofs have
needed replacing, and all of that comes back on the
residence of Colorado to pay for those losses that the
(03:11):
insurance companies are experiencing and why a lot of insurance
companies are pulling out of the Colorado area.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
That is something that we're all going to be dealing with,
and we talked about that a little bit earlier in
the show. Is that this is not something that happens
in a vacuum. When these fires happened, maybe it didn't
burn your house down, but you were going to feel
the effects of that as more insurance companies leave, as
it gets more expensive to get homeowners insurance and harder
to get homeowners insurance for some of these mountain properties.
(03:38):
Let me talk about some of the stuff that you
guys do, Like let's talk about ways to actually harden
someone's home against fire, Like what are some of the basics.
Where do you start.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Well, we get our information from the National Fire Prevention
Agency and they did some forensic work in twenty twenty
one after the Marshall fire, and that's where a lot
of this knowledge comes from. Don can tell you some specifics.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
So that home ignition zone, which I'm sure we've all
heard about. If not, I know, there's websites out there
we can go look Zone one is that zero to
five feet from the structure. And it's critical there that
people think, oh my god, look at the size of
that flame that's coming. That's really not the issue which
the studies have shown for your home. It's all of
(04:24):
the embers, those fire brands that at your house twenty
to thirty minutes before that flamefront gets there, and if
you've evacuated your house they're going to sit on those
paul erathink patio cushions which are going to catch fire. Right.
They're going to catch the firewood that you have stored
under your wooden deck. They're going to catch the debris
(04:45):
and your gutters, and then catch your face aboard and
soff itit's on fire. So within that zone one, there's
a lot that can be done well in advance before
we even talk about a wildfire season.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I was just talking to one of my favorite clients,
Jimmy Keys that got helmet, and we were talking about
a whole bunch of different things, and we talked about
fire risk, and he's like, oh my gosh, that's one
of the biggest things here in Colorado because clawged gutters.
When you have those gutter systems that just kept my
I had an old one that just caught pine needles.
Those are basically like little wicks in your gutters, right,
(05:17):
They're just waiting for an ember to drop in there.
And I'd never really thought about it before. I mean,
I love gutter helmet, but that's not why I bought it.
But you don't necessarily think about those things that you
just listed off. Couch cushions, you know, things of that nature. Okay,
so we've done the first zone one of that what
happens out and I'm assuming they want no trees in
that area, right.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
But they California's passed a law that says no vegetation
in zone one.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Okay, wow, so not even like any shrubbery or anything.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Correct. What science is showing though, Hey, if you have vegetation,
let's just say you have that tree you planted with
your grandfather fifty years ago, and that's a family heirloom tree,
right right, Let's make it part of the house then,
and go five feet from the tree and not have
other things. So it's not a heart yeah, not a
(06:09):
hard and fast fouel. When you move into zone two,
which is the six feet to thirty feet, what they're
saying there is, okay, you can have a little more vegetation.
But science are showing not in various fires. What they've
showed is ninety percent of structures can be saved if
you have discontinuous fuel within the sixty feet of your structure. Okay,
(06:32):
So if we have a surface fire, and we know
that surface fires are a little bit easier to maintain,
I use the term easy relatively versus a crowning fire.
But if there's a fuel break within that first sixty
feet of your home that can just drop the fuel down,
you're much better off. And therefore you just got to
worry about some embers so that next thirty feet you
can have some vegetation.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
One of the things we've been doing with our neighbors
out here in Florescent is when we clean up their properties,
make them a nice curvy line that like a little
walking path around their two acre property or three acre property.
That what that actually is is a fuel brake, so
that a ground fire stops when it gets to that
(07:15):
little walking path.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
That makes a lot of sense. I This question is
a good one from the text line, Mandy ask them
if they recommend hoa fences not be made of wood.
Black forest fire a few years ago had fire spread
by fences to homes. Is there a recommendation about fencing.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Here's what they say about that. We can go back
to the If you get a chance to look at
the aerial view of the boulder at Marshall fire right
that fire went right down that wood fence to the
next house. What they're saying is just put a metal
brake or a metal gate between the wood fence and
your house, or put some flashing on the side of
your house because that will break that fire.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Or even when you before you leave your house to
be evacuated, open the gate for sure. A line would
directly from your house to the neighbor is a great
way for you to catch your house on fire.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So let's move. Now, what is beyond zone two? Do
we have zone three? I mean, because I don't know
if my house is big enough to have a zone three,
if my yard is big enough to have a zone three.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So zone three is that thirty to one hundred feet.
So a lot of the houses out here in rural
where we are Teller County have acreage, right, and so
within that next one hundred feet. What they're saying is, hey,
let's let's send the trees. Let's make sure the drip
line or the branches between your trees are fifteen to
eighteen feet apart, so when a fire does climb a tree,
(08:38):
you have less likelihood of it becoming a crowning fire.
And then we because what we've done, we've added zone four,
which is to your property line. And many of the
experiments that have done, including the Northwest Torritories Crown Fire experiment.
Within one hundred to two hundred feet of this large
firefront flame, it's not going to catch your house on fire.
(09:01):
Even if it's made of wood. It will char it,
and there might be some point, but that is moving
so fast it will not stay on your structure long enough.
So if you if you've cleared out to two hundred feet,
we don't mean par cutting, we mean healthy forest, discontinueds
fuels to your house. You're going to be concerned about
the wildfire and many One of the questions we ask
(09:23):
our residents when we go to talk to him, what's
your concern? Save your house, save your forest or both?
Because both of them or all three of them have
different prescriptions. You can save your house and be surrounded
by char. The question is do you want to see?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yeah, so a dear friend of ours their house burned
and the Hayman fire are the fire Excuse me by
back back that up there. It burned up to their
house and the Hayman fire. Their house was saved by
the firefighters. She was real excited and happy about that
for a while. But after three years of driving through
the char, Yeah, and happen to smell all that burn
(10:03):
she just couldn't take it, so she finally had to
sell her house at a tremendous loss due to the
fire around her. So, you know, saving your forest is
kind of a big deal. If what the reason you
live in Colorado is the trees and the beauty.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Do you guys have any connections or lists for products?
Because someone's asking about Rhinoshield, the heavy duty paint coating
for homes, do you have lists available anywhere that kind
of gives you best practices? Like if you have to
get a new roof, should you put a concrete tile
roof on? If you have to repaint, is there a
better Is there better things to do now? Is that
(10:40):
available anywhere as people start to make updates to their homes.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Correct, It's on our website. I would say that composite shingles,
of all the tests they've done, a rated composite shingles
are perfectly fine in a wildfire. No need to go
all the way to mend unless you want to. Some
of the things that I would recommend if people are
doing some remodeling is making sure that they move to
sorry tempered glass as opposed to plate glass, because glass
(11:07):
can heat on the facing glass, but the glass that's
still in the slash will not heat, and therefore that
plate glass will fracture. Those shards are big shards. They'll drop,
and now you have a giant hole in your window
for embers to fly in. Right, And then I would
say rhinoshield I five or cement board, all those things
(11:32):
can certainly help.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Okay, one of the things on that window, especially if
you can't afford to replace all your windows, because tempered
glass can be really expensive. Most of the time our
fires come from the west because that's the prevailing wind.
At least maybe replace the west facing windows with the
tempered glass.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Okay, So if we've got people listening right now, maybe
they are concerned. They haven't done anything, and this weekend
we're going to go out and do some stuff. So
we're going to start in that five feet zone. Do
they need to clear out all the vegetation. I mean,
that's the thing, because there's a lot of decorative stuff
around houses here in Colorado.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Again, what we've seen, what we've learned and kind of
education is mulch commences burning in about fifteen seconds when
an ember lands on it. Wood burning mulch, scrape it
away right, put in rock. Make sure your foundation is clear.
(12:34):
And another thing, if you think you have a stucco
house and you're safe, reach under that very bottom by
your foundation and see if you have an undercap or
a cap on the bottom of that stuccle because right
behind the stucco as wood. A lot of stucco homes
have burned from the inside out because they don't have
that protection on the bottom. Wow.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
I actually just got this text message, Hey Mandy, I
work at the Marshall Fine Fire area with Exfinity doing
all the infrastructure there for Exfinity services. One thing I
did learn as many of those homes did not burn down,
but they imploded from within from the intense.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Heat yep radiant heat. Well, preheat that house and then
if something happens they can go in a hurry.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Well, how can people become a part of the no
flow co fire mitigation posse or maybe start one in
their neighborhood. Do you guys have a plan for that,
a blueprint? How could people can do that?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
So that is our plan. When we met with the
governor Governor Polis, we wanted to have no flow cost
factors throughout the state and then have them competing with
each other for the I would call it the Governor's
Trophy for fire mitigation. So we've already, I guess, invented
the wheel, so to speak. We've created a community, and
(13:54):
I think I need to make sure I state this.
We're made up of truly rocket scientists and arborist and
retired school teachers and retired builders. Were pro choice, pro life.
We're liberal or conservative, or Baptist or Catholic for atheists.
We've truly created a community for a common cause because
(14:15):
we reside in this state. So I would have them
reach out to us through our noflow Co website. We're
doing a few presentations around the state later in the fall.
Come join us and stay tuned.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
We're happy to hold anyone's hand and walk them through
the procedure to kind of get something going in the neighborhood.
We started with just Don and I and the very
first time we reached out to the neighborhood it was
five people and it's grown constantly since then. We're just
under six hundred people in the organization now here in
Taller County.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
That's amazing. How did you guys decide to do this.
I mean, it's one thing to say we're going to
take care of our own property, but when did you
look at each other and say we need to create
an organization of volunteers to take this all over the state.
When did that have.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Well, I always say this, I am a product of
my mother and father, and they said, you'll never be bored,
go do something. So I got a lot of nervous enters,
got a lot of nervous energy for that. And then
we would attend meetings and we came up with the
axiom where meetings where minutes are kept and hours are lost.
A lot of people sat around and talked about fire mitigation,
(15:22):
but no one was picking up sticks. So then we
started just with helping the elderly or the infirm, those
that wanted to stay in their home but couldn't do
the work. People would come on our property and say,
why does your property look like a park. We'd like that,
So we kind of saw the need for it, so
we just thought we'd start in our neighborhood and it
just took off from there.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Oh that's fantastic, Tony and Don Moore. I really appreciate
your time today. I put a link to the noflowco
dot org website and it is exactly like it sounds.
Stands for North Florence, Colorado dot org. So no flow
code dot org. I put a link on the blog today.
Great information on this, I mean, even what kind of
(16:03):
trees to plant in your property if you want to
add some trees like the ones that are most fire resistant,
the ones that give you the biggest problems, that kind
of thing. Great information. You guys are doing a great job,
and I hope that I bet you that you have
absolutely gotten some new supporters from this interview. Somebody just asked,
how can contractors get involved?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
That's a great question. We'd love them to come and
just put their advertising sign on one of our project days,
right and come out and continue to educate us. That's
what we're all about, to educating the public. And if
a contractor knows something about the building of a home
that can help the client at their home. Hearting and
zone one absolutely.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
And I went to a class in Castle Rocks a
couple of years ago called the ASIP Assessing Structure Agnission
Potential Class and learned so much it blew my mind
so much. It's where a lot of our information comes
from because I feel like that class is so important.
I've been working with the Colorado Forestry People along with
(17:10):
the Fire Adapted Colorado people, and on October tenth and eleven,
a class that's specially designed for contractors, fire professionals, for policymakers,
landscapers will be held at the Divide fire station here
in our area. If they reach out to us on
(17:33):
our contact information is at noflowcode dot org. I'll be
happy to get them. The information class usually costs several
hundred dollars a day. Because of all of us pulling together,
it's going to be absolutely free in Divide this year.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Oh that's fantastic. Here's a fun fact, guys. I actually
honeymoon in Divide, Colorado. We've rented a house on VRBO
that is now it's no longer a short term rental.
Now someone lives there and it was wonderful. We came
in February. There was like four feet of snow on
the ground. It was amazing and we had the best
time and we just started from there and went all
(18:08):
over Colorado on our honeymoon. But that's where we stayed.
And I tell people that they're like, where did you
stay in Divide? I was like, oh, it was a
lovely short term rental. So I have very fond memories
of Divide, Colorado.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
All right, so I need you, Chuck and the family
to come back. I know Chuck just celebrated his birthday.
So did you come to Floriss and we'll put you
up come to one of our projects, do a live broadcast,
and we can do all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
I would love to come down there for one of
your projects. I don't know about the live broadcast. Logistically,
the forest is not the best place to broadcast. That
being said, I'd love to come down and see how
you guys do what you do, So let me know
and get let's get you back on before October. Tony
to remind people about this event for contractors, because I
think that's really great, especially that they can do it
(18:51):
for free. Guys, thank you so much. You've given us
great information. Your website's fantastic. Thank you for all that
you're doing on this volunteer basis, and I hope lots
of people join you in this.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Absolutely thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
All right, Thanks Don and Tony Moore. There with no
flowco dot org. There's tons of information there
If you guys listened to the show, you know that
I am constantly talking about fire danger and how to
you know, make sure that your house is covered and
that you've videotaped all your stuff inside your house. But
I got a great email yesterday from a couple, Don
and Tony Moore who have created an all volunteer organization
in their neighborhood to help their neighbors and others learn
how to mitigate fire risk. And they're joining me on
(00:22):
the phone now. Don, first of all, welcome to the show,
both you and and Tony.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, thank you very much. Man. You every day your
show gets better and better. Today is going to be
the top sill ever?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Is that because you're on it? Is that what's happening?
You've got I've got the best guest stars today?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Is that absolutely? Man? Thank you for having us on today.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, I love what you guys are doing and I
want to find out tell me my audience what no
flow co fire mitigation posse is?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
All right, so no flow code just so we can
get through that. That's North Flora, Saint Colorado. However, that's where
we started out. Our footprints is growing much bigger than that.
Our mission statement is basically to assist private property owners
within the wildland urban interface with fire mitigation, fire awareness,
and forced health. We want to make sure we implement
(01:15):
the tenants and goals of the National Wildland Fire Cohesive Strategy,
and then we want to make our community safer from danger,
improve property appearance, and have a little fun while we're
doing it.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
So let's talk about let's do the financial benefits of
fire mitigation first, because on Tony sent me a bunch
of websites and what kind of insurance impact does it have?
If you do a property assessment and you come back
and say, Okay, they've done everything they can do, does
that have an impact on your homeowner's insurance?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Short answers probably know. And the reason I'm stating that
is because you know the insurance companies they're actuarials sit
in Hartford, Connecticut or Keyakuk, Iowa, and they look at
fire maps and Teller County is one of the highest
rated wildfire risk maps in the state. So of course
our insurance is going to be higher. What we're trying
(02:09):
to do, though, is connect various properties so we can
call them pods, so we can reduce the fuel load
within a neighborhood instead of just one single property.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
So what kind of stuff we'll go ahead, Tony, I.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Definitely to say. Currently, one of the reasons that Coloraden's
are having such a hard time with their insurance has
to do with what happened in the past as well
as the probability of something negative happening in the future.
Two big things have happened. The Marshall Fire of twenty
twenty one burned down eleven hundred beautiful, big, nearly million
(02:46):
dollar homes, some of them were over a million dollar
homes in the Boulder area. That's a huge hit for
all of those insurers. Another thing is the hail storms
we continue to get in Colorado. So many roofs have
needed replacing, and all of that comes back on the
residence of Colorado to pay for those losses that the
(03:11):
insurance companies are experiencing and why a lot of insurance
companies are pulling out of the Colorado area.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
That is something that we're all going to be dealing with,
and we talked about that a little bit earlier in
the show. Is that this is not something that happens
in a vacuum. When these fires happened, maybe it didn't
burn your house down, but you were going to feel
the effects of that as more insurance companies leave, as
it gets more expensive to get homeowners insurance and harder
to get homeowners insurance for some of these mountain properties.
(03:38):
Let me talk about some of the stuff that you
guys do, Like let's talk about ways to actually harden
someone's home against fire, Like what are some of the basics.
Where do you start.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Well, we get our information from the National Fire Prevention
Agency and they did some forensic work in twenty twenty
one after the Marshall fire, and that's where a lot
of this knowledge comes from. Don can tell you some specifics.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
So that home ignition zone, which I'm sure we've all
heard about. If not, I know, there's websites out there
we can go look Zone one is that zero to
five feet from the structure. And it's critical there that
people think, oh my god, look at the size of
that flame that's coming. That's really not the issue which
the studies have shown for your home. It's all of
(04:24):
the embers, those fire brands that at your house twenty
to thirty minutes before that flamefront gets there, and if
you've evacuated your house they're going to sit on those
paul erathink patio cushions which are going to catch fire. Right.
They're going to catch the firewood that you have stored
under your wooden deck. They're going to catch the debris
(04:45):
and your gutters, and then catch your face aboard and
soff itit's on fire. So within that zone one, there's
a lot that can be done well in advance before
we even talk about a wildfire season.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I was just talking to one of my favorite clients,
Jimmy Keys that got helmet, and we were talking about
a whole bunch of different things, and we talked about
fire risk, and he's like, oh my gosh, that's one
of the biggest things here in Colorado because clawged gutters.
When you have those gutter systems that just kept my
I had an old one that just caught pine needles.
Those are basically like little wicks in your gutters, right,
(05:17):
They're just waiting for an ember to drop in there.
And I'd never really thought about it before. I mean,
I love gutter helmet, but that's not why I bought it.
But you don't necessarily think about those things that you
just listed off. Couch cushions, you know, things of that nature. Okay,
so we've done the first zone one of that what
happens out and I'm assuming they want no trees in
that area, right.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
But they California's passed a law that says no vegetation
in zone one.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Okay, wow, so not even like any shrubbery or anything.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Correct. What science is showing though, Hey, if you have vegetation,
let's just say you have that tree you planted with
your grandfather fifty years ago, and that's a family heirloom tree,
right right, Let's make it part of the house then,
and go five feet from the tree and not have
other things. So it's not a heart yeah, not a
(06:09):
hard and fast fouel. When you move into zone two,
which is the six feet to thirty feet, what they're
saying there is, okay, you can have a little more vegetation.
But science are showing not in various fires. What they've
showed is ninety percent of structures can be saved if
you have discontinuous fuel within the sixty feet of your structure. Okay,
(06:32):
So if we have a surface fire, and we know
that surface fires are a little bit easier to maintain,
I use the term easy relatively versus a crowning fire.
But if there's a fuel break within that first sixty
feet of your home that can just drop the fuel down,
you're much better off. And therefore you just got to
worry about some embers so that next thirty feet you
can have some vegetation.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
One of the things we've been doing with our neighbors
out here in Florescent is when we clean up their properties,
make them a nice curvy line that like a little
walking path around their two acre property or three acre property.
That what that actually is is a fuel brake, so
that a ground fire stops when it gets to that
(07:15):
little walking path.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
That makes a lot of sense. I This question is
a good one from the text line, Mandy ask them
if they recommend hoa fences not be made of wood.
Black forest fire a few years ago had fire spread
by fences to homes. Is there a recommendation about fencing.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Here's what they say about that. We can go back
to the If you get a chance to look at
the aerial view of the boulder at Marshall fire right
that fire went right down that wood fence to the
next house. What they're saying is just put a metal
brake or a metal gate between the wood fence and
your house, or put some flashing on the side of
your house because that will break that fire.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Or even when you before you leave your house to
be evacuated, open the gate for sure. A line would
directly from your house to the neighbor is a great
way for you to catch your house on fire.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So let's move. Now, what is beyond zone two? Do
we have zone three? I mean, because I don't know
if my house is big enough to have a zone three,
if my yard is big enough to have a zone three.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So zone three is that thirty to one hundred feet.
So a lot of the houses out here in rural
where we are Teller County have acreage, right, and so
within that next one hundred feet. What they're saying is, hey,
let's let's send the trees. Let's make sure the drip
line or the branches between your trees are fifteen to
eighteen feet apart, so when a fire does climb a tree,
(08:38):
you have less likelihood of it becoming a crowning fire.
And then we because what we've done, we've added zone four,
which is to your property line. And many of the
experiments that have done, including the Northwest Torritories Crown Fire experiment.
Within one hundred to two hundred feet of this large
firefront flame, it's not going to catch your house on fire.
(09:01):
Even if it's made of wood. It will char it,
and there might be some point, but that is moving
so fast it will not stay on your structure long enough.
So if you if you've cleared out to two hundred feet,
we don't mean par cutting, we mean healthy forest, discontinueds
fuels to your house. You're going to be concerned about
the wildfire and many One of the questions we ask
(09:23):
our residents when we go to talk to him, what's
your concern? Save your house, save your forest or both?
Because both of them or all three of them have
different prescriptions. You can save your house and be surrounded
by char. The question is do you want to see?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yeah, so a dear friend of ours their house burned
and the Hayman fire are the fire Excuse me by
back back that up there. It burned up to their
house and the Hayman fire. Their house was saved by
the firefighters. She was real excited and happy about that
for a while. But after three years of driving through
the char, Yeah, and happen to smell all that burn
(10:03):
she just couldn't take it, so she finally had to
sell her house at a tremendous loss due to the
fire around her. So, you know, saving your forest is
kind of a big deal. If what the reason you
live in Colorado is the trees and the beauty.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Do you guys have any connections or lists for products?
Because someone's asking about Rhinoshield, the heavy duty paint coating
for homes, do you have lists available anywhere that kind
of gives you best practices? Like if you have to
get a new roof, should you put a concrete tile
roof on? If you have to repaint, is there a
better Is there better things to do now? Is that
(10:40):
available anywhere as people start to make updates to their homes.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Correct, It's on our website. I would say that composite shingles,
of all the tests they've done, a rated composite shingles
are perfectly fine in a wildfire. No need to go
all the way to mend unless you want to. Some
of the things that I would recommend if people are
doing some remodeling is making sure that they move to
sorry tempered glass as opposed to plate glass, because glass
(11:07):
can heat on the facing glass, but the glass that's
still in the slash will not heat, and therefore that
plate glass will fracture. Those shards are big shards. They'll drop,
and now you have a giant hole in your window
for embers to fly in. Right, And then I would
say rhinoshield I five or cement board, all those things
(11:32):
can certainly help.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Okay, one of the things on that window, especially if
you can't afford to replace all your windows, because tempered
glass can be really expensive. Most of the time our
fires come from the west because that's the prevailing wind.
At least maybe replace the west facing windows with the
tempered glass.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Okay, So if we've got people listening right now, maybe
they are concerned. They haven't done anything, and this weekend
we're going to go out and do some stuff. So
we're going to start in that five feet zone. Do
they need to clear out all the vegetation. I mean,
that's the thing, because there's a lot of decorative stuff
around houses here in Colorado.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Again, what we've seen, what we've learned and kind of
education is mulch commences burning in about fifteen seconds when
an ember lands on it. Wood burning mulch, scrape it
away right, put in rock. Make sure your foundation is clear.
(12:34):
And another thing, if you think you have a stucco
house and you're safe, reach under that very bottom by
your foundation and see if you have an undercap or
a cap on the bottom of that stuccle because right
behind the stucco as wood. A lot of stucco homes
have burned from the inside out because they don't have
that protection on the bottom. Wow.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
I actually just got this text message, Hey Mandy, I
work at the Marshall Fine Fire area with Exfinity doing
all the infrastructure there for Exfinity services. One thing I
did learn as many of those homes did not burn down,
but they imploded from within from the intense.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Heat yep radiant heat. Well, preheat that house and then
if something happens they can go in a hurry.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Well, how can people become a part of the no
flow co fire mitigation posse or maybe start one in
their neighborhood. Do you guys have a plan for that,
a blueprint? How could people can do that?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
So that is our plan. When we met with the
governor Governor Polis, we wanted to have no flow cost
factors throughout the state and then have them competing with
each other for the I would call it the Governor's
Trophy for fire mitigation. So we've already, I guess, invented
the wheel, so to speak. We've created a community, and
(13:54):
I think I need to make sure I state this.
We're made up of truly rocket scientists and arborist and
retired school teachers and retired builders. Were pro choice, pro life.
We're liberal or conservative, or Baptist or Catholic for atheists.
We've truly created a community for a common cause because
(14:15):
we reside in this state. So I would have them
reach out to us through our noflow Co website. We're
doing a few presentations around the state later in the fall.
Come join us and stay tuned.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
We're happy to hold anyone's hand and walk them through
the procedure to kind of get something going in the neighborhood.
We started with just Don and I and the very
first time we reached out to the neighborhood it was
five people and it's grown constantly since then. We're just
under six hundred people in the organization now here in
Taller County.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
That's amazing. How did you guys decide to do this.
I mean, it's one thing to say we're going to
take care of our own property, but when did you
look at each other and say we need to create
an organization of volunteers to take this all over the state.
When did that have.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Well, I always say this, I am a product of
my mother and father, and they said, you'll never be bored,
go do something. So I got a lot of nervous enters,
got a lot of nervous energy for that. And then
we would attend meetings and we came up with the
axiom where meetings where minutes are kept and hours are lost.
A lot of people sat around and talked about fire mitigation,
(15:22):
but no one was picking up sticks. So then we
started just with helping the elderly or the infirm, those
that wanted to stay in their home but couldn't do
the work. People would come on our property and say,
why does your property look like a park. We'd like that,
So we kind of saw the need for it, so
we just thought we'd start in our neighborhood and it
just took off from there.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Oh that's fantastic, Tony and Don Moore. I really appreciate
your time today. I put a link to the noflowco
dot org website and it is exactly like it sounds.
Stands for North Florence, Colorado dot org. So no flow
code dot org. I put a link on the blog today.
Great information on this, I mean, even what kind of
(16:03):
trees to plant in your property if you want to
add some trees like the ones that are most fire resistant,
the ones that give you the biggest problems, that kind
of thing. Great information. You guys are doing a great job,
and I hope that I bet you that you have
absolutely gotten some new supporters from this interview. Somebody just asked,
how can contractors get involved?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
That's a great question. We'd love them to come and
just put their advertising sign on one of our project days,
right and come out and continue to educate us. That's
what we're all about, to educating the public. And if
a contractor knows something about the building of a home
that can help the client at their home. Hearting and
zone one absolutely.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
And I went to a class in Castle Rocks a
couple of years ago called the ASIP Assessing Structure Agnission
Potential Class and learned so much it blew my mind
so much. It's where a lot of our information comes
from because I feel like that class is so important.
I've been working with the Colorado Forestry People along with
(17:10):
the Fire Adapted Colorado people, and on October tenth and eleven,
a class that's specially designed for contractors, fire professionals, for policymakers,
landscapers will be held at the Divide fire station here
in our area. If they reach out to us on
(17:33):
our contact information is at noflowcode dot org. I'll be
happy to get them. The information class usually costs several
hundred dollars a day. Because of all of us pulling together,
it's going to be absolutely free in Divide this year.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Oh that's fantastic. Here's a fun fact, guys. I actually
honeymoon in Divide, Colorado. We've rented a house on VRBO
that is now it's no longer a short term rental.
Now someone lives there and it was wonderful. We came
in February. There was like four feet of snow on
the ground. It was amazing and we had the best
time and we just started from there and went all
(18:08):
over Colorado on our honeymoon. But that's where we stayed.
And I tell people that they're like, where did you
stay in Divide? I was like, oh, it was a
lovely short term rental. So I have very fond memories
of Divide, Colorado.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
All right, so I need you, Chuck and the family
to come back. I know Chuck just celebrated his birthday.
So did you come to Floriss and we'll put you
up come to one of our projects, do a live broadcast,
and we can do all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
I would love to come down there for one of
your projects. I don't know about the live broadcast. Logistically,
the forest is not the best place to broadcast. That
being said, I'd love to come down and see how
you guys do what you do, So let me know
and get let's get you back on before October. Tony
to remind people about this event for contractors, because I
think that's really great, especially that they can do it
(18:51):
for free. Guys, thank you so much. You've given us
great information. Your website's fantastic. Thank you for all that
you're doing on this volunteer basis, and I hope lots
of people join you in this.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Absolutely thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
All right, Thanks Don and Tony Moore. There with no
flowco dot org. There's tons of information there
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