Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio app. In
Speaker 1: our continuing topical coverage of the southern California wildfires, we
Speaker 1: have been discussing steps toward fire hardening your home. I
Speaker 1: do a fire hardening show every single year, right before
Speaker 1: quote unquote fire season, which is like, you know, nine
Speaker 1: out of twelve months these days. But in the spirit
Speaker 1: of dealing with and helping you with what is happening
Speaker 1: right now, you know, we've pushed aside other scheduled topics
Speaker 1: and we're covering this again for you. This is an overview.
Speaker 1: If you want more in depth and go back into
Speaker 1: the podcast archives and simply find the Fire Hardening Show
Speaker 1: and you'll see a full dedication. After we're done with
Speaker 1: fire hardening, I want to move on to what comes next,
Speaker 1: but there are some very specific and interesting questions that
Speaker 1: are coming.
Speaker 2: Up a result of this. Let's lose our music.
Speaker 1: Bed there if you can, Homer, thanks. There are some
Speaker 1: specific questions coming up this A lot of our callers
Speaker 1: are asking these kinds of questions. In fact, I just
Speaker 1: had some clients who live in Malibu text me an
Speaker 1: interesting story that was posted about what about kind of
Speaker 1: heroic efforts to protect our homes? Everything from fire sprinklers
Speaker 1: to external field sprinklers, to personal water reservoirs, to paying
Speaker 1: an exorbitant amount of money to have a personal fire
Speaker 1: hydrant on your own property for the protection of your home?
Speaker 2: How effective are these? Are they?
Speaker 1: Good ideas? This kind of stuff I want to take.
Speaker 1: I know I was going to talk about fire gel
Speaker 1: and I'm going to, but I have on the line
Speaker 1: with me while he's available, somebody that I want to
Speaker 1: have this conversation with, a very very dear friend of mine.
Speaker 1: Also somebody who has been involved with wildfires for countless years.
Speaker 1: Well not countless, I mean he's not ancient, but he
Speaker 1: is a good friend countless years. John White, John, are
Speaker 1: you there, buddy?
Speaker 3: Good morning. It was twenty eight and a half years
Speaker 3: and I am now retired.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so we did count them, I said, countless,
Speaker 1: but you just counted them, So that's good. John is
Speaker 1: a very very dear friend. He is a client, a
Speaker 1: design client as well. But our friendship just continues as
Speaker 1: most of our clients do. John is one of those
Speaker 1: guys who called me and said, hey, how you doing,
Speaker 1: Are you guys safe? Do you need to come out here?
Speaker 1: Do you need to you know what? Do you need?
Speaker 1: I'm here for you. He's just one of those people.
Speaker 1: But most importantly in terms of this conversation, instead of
Speaker 1: me doing this whole CV of yours, can you tell everybody, John,
Speaker 1: you know what you've been working on for the last
Speaker 1: twenty eight years that you're now just literally recently retired from.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for the last twenty eight years. Since nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 3: I've been or was a heavy equipment operator for the
Speaker 3: State Fire Department, which is a fancy way of saying
Speaker 3: that I took a bulldozer and scratched line to bear
Speaker 3: mineral soil around vegetation fires.
Speaker 2: And that's for CAL fire.
Speaker 3: That's correct, CAL fire.
Speaker 1: So John has literally been in the thick of it
Speaker 1: on one of those bulldozers when it's you know, all
Speaker 1: hell is breaking loose literally around John. I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk to you about a very very specific thing. We've
Speaker 1: got some calls, We've had questions. I've had emails about
Speaker 1: what about the idea of getting big fire hoses for
Speaker 1: my house and a personal fire hydrant for my house
Speaker 1: and a personal reservoir for my house with a backup
Speaker 1: pump and a generator, and or making a deal with
Speaker 1: the water company and tapping into lines. What about you know,
Speaker 1: water dropping water like a water curtain off the edge
Speaker 1: of my home. What about fire sprinklers on the top
Speaker 1: of my roof or on the perimeter of my property.
Speaker 1: The thing that concerns me the most. You know, we
Speaker 1: can just talk about anything that comes to mind in
Speaker 1: those terms. But here here's my initial thought that I
Speaker 1: want you to respond to. I'm a bit concerned about
Speaker 1: manually operated systems when it comes to this. I really
Speaker 1: don't have a problem if the water. If you have
Speaker 1: the money and you want to put in a ten
Speaker 1: thousand goll and buried water tank somewhere on your property
Speaker 1: and have your own dedicated pump to it that automatically
Speaker 1: or when you turn it on, will feed perimeter sprinklers
Speaker 1: that are basically kind of just moistening and dampening the
Speaker 1: perimeter of your house. Hey, go for it. Okay, you're
Speaker 1: not drawing from the municipal water supply at that point,
Speaker 1: you're not taking away from firefighters who are in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: And you turn them on and leave My concern is,
Speaker 1: as I was just reading in this article here of
Speaker 1: a home in Malibu where the guy's got a personal
Speaker 1: fire hydrant, he paid an amazing amount of money to
Speaker 1: tap into the actual water supply, and he's got firefighting clothes,
Speaker 1: and he plans on staying and protecting his house. I
Speaker 1: get concerned about that because my experience has been that
Speaker 1: there is no one hundred percent bullet proof defense of
Speaker 1: a home. And what if somebody is encouraged to stay
Speaker 1: home and fight a fire against their house with a
Speaker 1: hose and they miss their window of evacuation and it's
Speaker 1: simply not going to happen. The hose, no matter how large,
Speaker 1: is simply not going to protect the house. Is that realistic?
Speaker 1: Is that a stupid concern on my part? Or am
Speaker 1: I making sense?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 3: I guess first and foremost, it's a question that I
Speaker 3: often pose back at people, including some of our own people,
Speaker 3: is do you have enough? And the response I usually
Speaker 3: get from that is people look at me and say
Speaker 3: do I have enough? What? And it's like, do you
Speaker 3: have enough water? Do you have enough time? Do you
Speaker 3: have enough power? Manpower? Do you have enough equipment tapping
Speaker 3: into say a personal fire hydrant. That's not a bad idea,
Speaker 3: and none of these ideas are bad ideas, but you
Speaker 3: have to truly evaluate is it going to be effective
Speaker 3: cost effective when it's needed. You know, in this case,
Speaker 3: such as what happened or what's happened on the Palisades
Speaker 3: fire is too many engines, too many people asking for water,
Speaker 3: the system is not designed to handle that. It's not
Speaker 3: economically feasible for them to design a system like that.
Speaker 3: So you might spend a great deal of money for
Speaker 3: your own personal fire hydrant, but is there going to
Speaker 3: be water in it when the next Palisades fire happens.
Speaker 3: Chances are no. You know, when you've got hundreds, if
Speaker 3: not thousands of hydrants open, well probably hundreds, maybe not thousands.
Speaker 3: When you have hundreds of hydrants open, it's going to
Speaker 3: the system is quickly going to run out of water.
Speaker 3: And if that's to be expected, like say, you can't
Speaker 3: you can't build a system big enough to handle a
Speaker 3: conflagration that occurred in the Palisades or the Eden Tire.
Speaker 3: So you know, little hydrid, Yeah, you can do it.
Speaker 3: And for the five or ten acre fire that's near
Speaker 3: your home, it might not be a bad idea. But
Speaker 3: when it's a wind driven fire like the Palisades fire,
Speaker 3: it's really not going to buy you anything.
Speaker 2: I got you, all right, John, Can you hold that thought.
Speaker 1: I'm just they're tapping on my shoulder because we've got
Speaker 1: to go to break. Can you hang on with me
Speaker 1: for one more segment?
Speaker 2: Bun?
Speaker 3: Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, great, we're going to pick this right
Speaker 1: up right after we get the latest news.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Here with you on this smoky Sunday morning, January twelfth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, as the Los Angeles Greater Los Angeles
Speaker 1: area wildfires continue to burn, even though we are making
Speaker 1: some progress, and let's hope that progress holds as the
Speaker 1: winds pick back up again. But we are talking about
Speaker 1: fire hardening your home and then transitioning to what comes
Speaker 1: next and right now, because of a few questions that
Speaker 1: I get a lot and and a lot that have
Speaker 1: just streamed in this morning regarding what I would call
Speaker 1: kind of extreme measures when it comes to getting a
Speaker 1: home ready or preparing for a possible wildfire incursion on
Speaker 1: your home, I've got on the line a very dear
Speaker 1: friend of mine, and they just recently retired from Cowfire
Speaker 1: Commander John White, John, you're still with me, bud.
Speaker 3: Yes, I am. It's heavy fire equipment operator, not commander.
Speaker 2: Oh well, okay, fine, that's fine.
Speaker 1: Heavy people go ahead. I appreciate that. I totally appreciate that.
Speaker 1: My bad, my bad John literally is one of the guys,
Speaker 1: or was one of the guys on those bulldozers that
Speaker 1: you see being drawn into fire areas during wildfires. And specifically,
Speaker 1: I mean to kind of oversimplify the process, you know,
Speaker 1: clearing areas of ground down to bare soil, so that
Speaker 1: there is so these creating these swaths of non ignitable
Speaker 1: areas in order to create lines to stop the fire,
Speaker 1: to hold the fire, defensible zones and so on and
Speaker 1: so forth. I thought John would be a great person,
Speaker 1: and he was because I love how you said in
Speaker 1: response to my question about what about all of these
Speaker 1: extreme measures, and your response was basically, well that you
Speaker 1: normally ask people are you going to have enough? And
Speaker 1: the question of enough, do you have enough manpower? Do
Speaker 1: you have enough water?
Speaker 2: Do you you know? And will you have it? On
Speaker 2: the day?
Speaker 1: And I think where right where I had to cut
Speaker 1: you off as we were going to break. But we're
Speaker 1: back now to address it. You had said that that, okay,
Speaker 1: your own personal fire hydrant, if there's a multi acre
Speaker 1: fire nearby, maybe that's a great idea. But in a
Speaker 1: you know, a perfect storm condition like the Palisades fire,
Speaker 1: who knows whether there's even going to be pressure in
Speaker 1: that system, because you know Palisades. That was one of
Speaker 1: the issues is that there were such draw such demand
Speaker 1: from so many companies fighting so many facets of the fire.
Speaker 1: Plus in addition, the house is being burned, pipes breaking
Speaker 1: open and losing water in that direction, that pressure was low,
Speaker 1: and pressure was an issue. And so it's a question
Speaker 1: of is it a bad idea. No, I guess it's
Speaker 1: not a bad idea. Is it going to pay off
Speaker 1: for you? If it's a perfect storm scenario, that's that's debatable. Now,
Speaker 1: if you have your own personal reservoir and a pump
Speaker 1: driven by your own generator system and you're not relying
Speaker 1: on the municipal water pressure supply, maybe that's a better scenario.
Speaker 1: That's also a much more expensive scenario. And again the
Speaker 1: question for me comes down to, all, right, let's say
Speaker 1: somebody has that system. John shouldn't that be ideally kind
Speaker 1: of an automated system where you set it and walk
Speaker 1: as opposed to And I'm responding to some clients of
Speaker 1: ours who sent us an article about a home in
Speaker 1: Malibu homeowner in Malibu who's literally he has taken a
Speaker 1: little bit of fire training apparently, and he's got a
Speaker 1: full on, you know, fire department fire suit, and he's
Speaker 1: planning on staying put the next time flames are approaching
Speaker 1: his house. And I wonder if you know, when you've
Speaker 1: got multiple individuals with all of the equipment necessary who
Speaker 1: are super trained, I mean career trained individuals to fight fires,
Speaker 1: attacking fire lines, and there's an evacuation order for your neighborhood,
Speaker 1: is it smart or stupid to stay home as the
Speaker 1: loan firefighter of your home when you're not even a
Speaker 1: firefighter missed the evacuation window and expect that the system
Speaker 1: that you've paid so much money for is somehow going
Speaker 1: to save your house.
Speaker 3: Well, it's certainly a can of worms. First and foremost.
Speaker 3: I would be remiss if I didn't suggest to everybody
Speaker 3: that the first line of defense is defensible space, a
Speaker 3: hundred foot clearing around your structure of highly flammable material
Speaker 3: is going to be the first line of defense that
Speaker 3: has the best opportunity to save your structure. Secondly, I
Speaker 3: would only go as far as to point out what
Speaker 3: happened during the Esperanza fire in the Banning Pass when
Speaker 3: a full crew of professional trained for service firefighters lost
Speaker 3: their lives because they were trying to stay and defend
Speaker 3: a structure. If it can happen to professional trained, highly
Speaker 3: trained firefighters, you can only imagine that somebody that's taking
Speaker 3: a couple online courses is not going to be prepared
Speaker 3: to handle it. The other thing is, again it goes
Speaker 3: back to do you have enough of anything? And do
Speaker 3: you have enough time? Having your own ten thousand gallons
Speaker 3: of water tank and a sprinkler system or any sort
Speaker 3: of system to utilize that is not a bad idea. Again, though,
Speaker 3: timing is going to be everything, because you're going to
Speaker 3: have to sit down and figure out how many gallons
Speaker 3: per minute your system is using and how long that
Speaker 3: ten thousand gallons would last, and then time it perfectly
Speaker 3: so that the flame front reaches your house just before,
Speaker 3: or excuse me, just after your fire suppression system kicks in.
Speaker 3: Because if you start your system at eight o'clock and
Speaker 3: it's only good for one hundred and ten minutes, and
Speaker 3: the fire doesn't reach you until ten o'clock, chances are
Speaker 3: you've wasted your ten thousand gallons of water. So there's
Speaker 3: there's so many variables. It's it's really not a good practice,
Speaker 3: especially in the conflagration like the Paradise Fire, to to
Speaker 3: try to stay behind and save your house. And unless
Speaker 3: you really feel confident in your skills and your timing,
Speaker 3: it's it's a very risky thing to do. And at
Speaker 3: the end of the day, all these things are just stuff.
Speaker 3: They're you know, yes, there they are lifetimes and memories
Speaker 3: and I get that, and I can't tell you how
Speaker 3: many times I've seen lifetimes of memories burnt to the ground.
Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, you're alive to
Speaker 3: realize that it's just stuff.
Speaker 1: M I love how you put that, not that not
Speaker 1: just that it's just stuff. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, if you are alive to suffer the loss
Speaker 1: of your stuff, you're ahead of the game. It is
Speaker 1: better to be alive to have and feel the loss
Speaker 1: of your stuff than to not be alive by the
Speaker 1: time the fire is done. And I think your message
Speaker 1: to everybody on as they start to play. The most
Speaker 1: valuable thing your perspective has given us this morning, John
Speaker 1: by Far, is these these ideas of like do you
Speaker 1: have enough? Do you have enough time? How much water
Speaker 1: do you have on hand? When do you start your system?
Speaker 1: Because undoubtedly, undoubtedly, unless you're you've got enough water to run,
Speaker 1: let's say your automated sprinkler system for you know, twenty
Speaker 1: four hours plus, undoubtedly an evacuation order is coming, and
Speaker 1: ideally you're getting out of there hopefully, you know, not
Speaker 1: just ten minutes before the fire arrives. Hopefully you're getting
Speaker 1: out of there well before the potential of the fire
Speaker 1: arriving at your home. And like you said, ten thousand
Speaker 1: gallons sounds great, but if it's all used up, you know,
Speaker 1: two hours before the fire arrives, then then the system
Speaker 1: has done nothing in terms of helping you out. John,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to keep you any longer, my friend.
Speaker 1: I absolutely appreciate and love your perspective on this. It
Speaker 1: has helped a lot of people just kind of ground
Speaker 1: themselves insanity when it comes to this, because these are
Speaker 1: terrifying experiences, but they're not the kind of thing that
Speaker 1: we and they tempt us to go to extremes, but
Speaker 1: extremes are what they are, and when we find ourselves
Speaker 1: literally standing in the extreme, it's an entirely different experience
Speaker 1: than just thinking and planning for it. And John, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you, appreciate all you've done and all you continue
Speaker 1: to do, and thanks for being with me on the show.
Speaker 3: Give me a call any time, all right, but we'll.
Speaker 2: Talk soon, all right. When we return.
Speaker 1: I will talk to you about something you can do
Speaker 1: that is proven to be effective in many, many instances.
Speaker 1: Is it a silver bullet, No, but proven statistically to
Speaker 1: be effective before you evacuate, Something that if you have
Speaker 1: it on hand, you will likely have time to deploy
Speaker 1: before you leave and it could make a big difference.
Speaker 1: And that is some form of fire gel for your home.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that right after.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: You are Home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper. Thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us on the program today. I hope you
Speaker 1: are safe and sound wherever you are listening to my
Speaker 1: voice this morning, especially if you are here in southern
Speaker 1: California and dealing with or anywhere near or ongoing wildfires
Speaker 1: that are continuing to burn. It looks like we're making
Speaker 1: some progress on them, some significant progress on all of
Speaker 1: the firefronts, but it's not over, and with the winds
Speaker 1: kicking back up, there is still plenty of concern out
Speaker 1: there and plenty of devastation left in the path. We're
Speaker 1: going to be talking about how we restart after an
Speaker 1: event like this, any natural disaster, but it's specifically in
Speaker 1: our case, these fires. But right now I want to
Speaker 1: finish talking about just a brief overview of fire hardening
Speaker 1: your home, and then we're gonna see if we can
Speaker 1: take some calls to review amber proof vents for your
Speaker 1: attic or if you've got to remodel in your future,
Speaker 1: consider remodeling your attic into a conditioned attic space where
Speaker 1: no vents are required. If it is a last minute
Speaker 1: thing and you are facing evacuation or evacuation warnings for
Speaker 1: your area and you don't have proof vents obviously you
Speaker 1: can't get them now, then consider simply taping off your vents,
Speaker 1: the vents that you can reach. Anything you can get
Speaker 1: too safely tape off those vents, duct tape masking tape
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be. You're like, that stuff's not
Speaker 1: going to hold up to a fire once it's burning
Speaker 1: at the base of my wall.
Speaker 2: No it's not.
Speaker 1: But I'm not talking about the fire arriving at your house.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about stopping tiny little embers from entering into
Speaker 1: your attic. So if all else fails before an evacuation,
Speaker 1: tape off those vents. It's not going to hurt anything
Speaker 1: inside the house for a couple three days to have
Speaker 1: the attic vents taped up. Okay, tape off the vents
Speaker 1: for your house before you leave. Fire Rated windows obviously
Speaker 1: it's code under new construction and major remodels, but also
Speaker 1: voluntarily you can change those out for your home. If
Speaker 1: that's not in your budget, then fire rated window film
Speaker 1: that will hold the glass in place even if it
Speaker 1: shatters because of the heat of the flame. We talked
Speaker 1: about defensible space with my guest and good buddy John
Speaker 1: White from cow Fire. Defensible space, no question, the best
Speaker 1: deterrent that you can use for the fire line actually
Speaker 1: approaching your home, and that is one hundred feet away
Speaker 1: from your house. Clear out and eliminate as much flammable
Speaker 1: stuff as possible and especially right before you leave. Get
Speaker 1: junk away from your house, Get stuff away from leaning
Speaker 1: up against the walls, stuff that is that is tucked
Speaker 1: up underneath your eaves, get it away, Get it as
Speaker 1: far away from the house as possible. And with John White,
Speaker 1: as you heard over the last couple of seconds, I
Speaker 1: was talking about more extreme measures. Okay, Now, one thing
Speaker 1: I should say when I say fire sprinklers in this situation,
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about in house fire sprinklers. Those are always, always,
Speaker 1: always a great idea, okay, in home fire suppress systems.
Speaker 1: They are not that expensive to retrofit into a home
Speaker 1: if it is a concern of yours, and it would
Speaker 1: be wise to include those in any remodel budget, major remodels,
Speaker 1: especially new construction. They are required throughout the state of
Speaker 1: California now, no matter what the size of your house is,
Speaker 1: and statistically they save lives almost always and save property usually. Okay,
Speaker 1: But the fire sprinklers that I was talking about are
Speaker 1: ideas about field sprinklers, private personal hydrants, reservoirs, and so on.
Speaker 1: And you heard John tell us that at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, it's a question of how effective and
Speaker 1: how efficient those things are going to be and the
Speaker 1: timing of it. Do you have the time, do you
Speaker 1: have the resources, will you have the water pressure? And
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. The point is this,
Speaker 1: if an evacuation order comes for your home, evacuate. Don't
Speaker 1: be foolish and stay home and pretend to be a
Speaker 1: trained fire fighter with a garden hose.
Speaker 2: Do not do that.
Speaker 1: Get out and move on because it is as John
Speaker 1: put it so well, it's just stuff. Better to survive
Speaker 1: and feel the loss than for you not to survive
Speaker 1: the fire and be the loss. So that is the
Speaker 1: fire hardening of your home. In a nutshell, the overall list,
Speaker 1: I'm going to add one thing to it, and this
Speaker 1: isn't really fire hardening. Well, I back up, I'm getting
Speaker 1: ahead of myself. I promised before the break that the
Speaker 1: last item on the list. Forgive me for getting ahead
Speaker 1: of myself. Here something that has been proven effective in many,
Speaker 1: many circumstances, many instances. Fire gel. Now you've heard Dean
Speaker 1: say fire gel. What is this suff fire gel stuff?
Speaker 1: Fire gel is very simply this. It is a gelatinous
Speaker 1: substance that kind of gets foamy up. It comes in
Speaker 1: you know, one gallon and five gallon the canisters, it
Speaker 1: can hook onto a garden hose, much like like your
Speaker 1: Miracle Grow fertilizer hooks onto your garden hose when you
Speaker 1: spray it across your shrubs to fertilize them, you know,
Speaker 1: So you run water through your hose, it mixes with
Speaker 1: the gel and then becomes a sprayer and a distribution
Speaker 1: nozzle for the gel. The fire gel is a fire
Speaker 1: retardant gel and it clings to surfaces. Now again, is
Speaker 1: this a silver bullet that's going to absolutely save your house? No,
Speaker 1: there is no such thing. But could this potentially help? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: And statistically it has proven to do so. And the
Speaker 1: reason I like it is because number One, you can
Speaker 1: store this stuff indefinitely. It's not a risk to you.
Speaker 1: It's literally the very definition of non flammable. You can
Speaker 1: store it long term. Number Two, you can disperse it
Speaker 1: very quickly. So if you're in a an evacuation warning area,
Speaker 1: like the order to go has not come yet but
Speaker 1: it's likely to come, then you can be prepped to
Speaker 1: do this. And John talked about timing right, you can
Speaker 1: be prepped to do this as the very last thing
Speaker 1: you do before you leave. It does not take a
Speaker 1: lot of time to do it. And the nice thing
Speaker 1: about fire gel is that it clings to surfaces and
Speaker 1: will hold on under most conditions for at least twenty
Speaker 1: four and as often as as much as forty eight hours. Okay,
Speaker 1: so it will hold. You can spray down what your windows,
Speaker 1: your house, the eaves, the edge of the roof, yes,
Speaker 1: patio furniture, yes, trees and shrubs, it's non toxic to them.
Speaker 1: Trees and shrubs that are susceptible in the backyard. Yes,
Speaker 1: plant materials that are too close to the house.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: You can get enough of this stuff that you can
Speaker 1: spray it down now. Typically the cost is for the
Speaker 1: average size home, right, and you'll have to evaluate this,
Speaker 1: and they'll help you evaluate it. For the average size home,
Speaker 1: you're looking at about seven hundred dollars or so investment
Speaker 1: to have this stored away. Larger homes, more, smaller homes,
Speaker 1: maybe a little less. I'd rather have more on hand
Speaker 1: than less, for sure. But the nice thing about fire
Speaker 1: gel is that you can do that. If the fire
Speaker 1: line approaches your home, it may make all the difference,
Speaker 1: may make all the difference. And after the fire, when
Speaker 1: you return to your home that is still standing, you
Speaker 1: can then take out the garden hose and spray it
Speaker 1: off everything. You can just rinse everything down and life
Speaker 1: at that point will return to normal. That is the
Speaker 1: advantage of fire jail. Now, is there more than one
Speaker 1: out there? Yes, the company that I've been very impressed with,
Speaker 1: very proud of, and have recommended on multiple occasions is
Speaker 1: Barricade two. That's the product, Barricade two. It may even
Speaker 1: be Barricade three. Now fire Gel. You can find that
Speaker 1: at firegel dot com. And when you speak with him
Speaker 1: or interact with him, please let them know that I
Speaker 1: sent you and headed you in that direction. You can
Speaker 1: find out everything you need to know about fire gel
Speaker 1: at firegel dot com. And right now, I believe you
Speaker 1: will find on the landing page of that website a
Speaker 1: special note to southern California residents as to exactly where
Speaker 1: what West Coast supplier you can talk to that they
Speaker 1: have prepared to get you fire gail materials as quickly
Speaker 1: as possible. Okay, firejail dot com. So that is the
Speaker 1: the end of my short list of fire hardening your home.
Speaker 1: Those are the basics not only long term, but to
Speaker 1: intermediate and well. If you just got to get out.
Speaker 1: You can do a couple of things before you leave
Speaker 1: to maybe help, but most importantly you get out. Okay,
Speaker 1: when we come back, let's take a couple of calls,
Speaker 1: and then we'll talk a little bit about emergency power supply,
Speaker 1: something that has touched way more people than just the
Speaker 1: fire in Southern California, Emergency power supply during windstorm events
Speaker 1: like we've had, and how that affects your preparedness. And
Speaker 1: then we'll move on to how do we rebuild all
Speaker 1: of this? Still coming up? Go know where your Home
Speaker 1: with Dean Sharp the House Whisper.
Speaker 5: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 5: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us on the program today.
Speaker 1: We are continuing kfi's coverage of the Southern California Greater
Speaker 1: Los Angeles area wildfires and up to date information for
Speaker 1: you from the twenty four hour KFI news Room and
Speaker 1: I have been discussing fire hardening your home preparations for that,
Speaker 1: We're going to transition to how do you rebuild when
Speaker 1: an entire neighborhood is gone? And what are the steps
Speaker 1: that everybody should be taking if you've been evacuated, if
Speaker 1: you've lost your home, what to expect next, and what
Speaker 1: challenges lie ahead. We'll be dealing with that next. But
Speaker 1: right now I've been neglecting the phones because I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to get as much of this information out and
Speaker 1: I want to take a couple of calls if we can.
Speaker 1: So let's talk to Let's talk to Nate. Hey, Nate,
Speaker 1: welcome home.
Speaker 4: Yeah, how are you doing?
Speaker 1: Dan?
Speaker 2: I'm good? How can I help you? Bud?
Speaker 4: I'm good. First off, I'd like to say that what
Speaker 4: you said about the ambers and get into your event,
Speaker 4: that's so true. That will happen to me and Aldadina fires.
Speaker 4: My neighbors called me at work and told me seeing
Speaker 4: the vent start to smoke. So that's really really that's
Speaker 4: really really true. But anyway, my question is the ruse.
Speaker 4: I'll ask you a question about the RUSS. Is anything
Speaker 4: we can do it with the roof, like any like
Speaker 4: retard in one resistance one speed that I should look
Speaker 4: into for the roof. The roof I just had installed
Speaker 4: a couple of years ago. He told me it was
Speaker 4: on wind resistance but a certain speed. I just forgot
Speaker 4: what it was, do you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: When it comes to wind speeds in southern California, I
Speaker 1: don't think you have much to be concerned about. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I understand that roofing materials are manufactured for nationwide use, okay,
Speaker 1: for nationwide application, and so there are areas of the
Speaker 1: country obviously tornado zones, tornado alley, hurricane laden areas, hurricane
Speaker 1: prone areas, I should say, in which you want to
Speaker 1: make sure that the roofing material is rated for a
Speaker 1: particular wind speed. Okay, here in southern California. The fact
Speaker 1: that we just had these sixty to eighty mile an
Speaker 1: hour gusts of wind, not a lot of reports about
Speaker 1: shingles flying off of roofs, because it usually takes considerably
Speaker 1: more than that to get up and under. And about
Speaker 1: eighty percent of the homes in southern California are asphalt
Speaker 1: composite shingles, which have a tendency to be very sticky
Speaker 1: to themselves and to lie flat and to lie pro Now,
Speaker 1: older roofs, absolutely old wood shake roofs, which shouldn't even
Speaker 1: be around Southern California anywhere, very susceptible to that lightweight
Speaker 1: concrete tiles and stuff. You know now we're talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, one hundred plus mile an hour winds lifting
Speaker 1: those up, so wind not the first and foremost concern
Speaker 1: about that. In regards to roof I am sure. I'm
Speaker 1: quite confident if you just had your roof done a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, that you've got a pretty dang
Speaker 1: good wind resistant roofing system in play, no matter what
Speaker 1: you bought, importantly fire resistance, and I talked about this
Speaker 1: a little earlier, but I'm going to cover it again.
Speaker 1: You absolutely have a fire resistant roof up there if
Speaker 1: you installed it just two years ago, because it's code.
Speaker 1: Unless you broke the law and did it without a
Speaker 1: permit and found some cheap material somewhere off the black market,
Speaker 1: you have got a fire rated roof. And it's not
Speaker 1: even the fact that the local code requires you to
Speaker 1: have it fire rated. It's just the fact that roofing
Speaker 1: manufacturers are idiotic if they don't make all of their
Speaker 1: materials class A fire rated. And Class A again is
Speaker 1: a rating that essentially, you know, it gets applied differently
Speaker 1: on different surfaces, but essentially means that that material can
Speaker 1: withstand direct contact with flame and resist it for at
Speaker 1: least an hour. And because fire lines move as quickly
Speaker 1: as they do. That's the kind of material that we're
Speaker 1: looking for to resist it for the time that it's
Speaker 1: passing through or near your home. Can it be overwhelmed yes,
Speaker 1: can it be burnt through?
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: In fact, again, when you see most roofs on fire, okay,
Speaker 1: and I want everyone to listen to me on this
Speaker 1: to underscore my previous point that I repeat again and again.
Speaker 1: When you see most roofs on fire, that fire started
Speaker 1: underneath the roofing material in the attic where it's catching
Speaker 1: the rafters and the roof sheathing, the plywood and such,
Speaker 1: the wood underneath it all. It's burning from the bottom
Speaker 1: side and has burnt up and through. Very rarely these
Speaker 1: days do we find fires burning down through the class
Speaker 1: A roofing materials into the attic. So again, the embers critical.
Speaker 1: If you have an up to date roof, I think
Speaker 1: you're probably in good shape.
Speaker 4: Nate, Okay, I appreciate that, and that amper d Gay,
Speaker 4: that was very good. I didn't know that. And I'm
Speaker 4: telling you that that happened to my house exactly like
Speaker 4: you said.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate it, all right, buddy, good luck, stay safe.
Speaker 1: I appreciate the call. And uh, I appreciate the shout
Speaker 1: out and the support and Nate please stay safe and
Speaker 1: I hope all goes well with your home, do I?
Speaker 2: I you know I'm going to start.
Speaker 1: I've got time to start another call and then we'll
Speaker 1: have to go to break. But it's all good. Let's
Speaker 1: talk to Roger. Hey, Roger, welcome.
Speaker 6: Home, plumbster. Dame must appreciate you and tinam. Quick question
Speaker 6: regards to since you're a homebuilder, obviously I'm talking about
Speaker 6: the fiery jel. So since you're building homes, do you
Speaker 6: ever have you ever put a fire suppression I'm referring
Speaker 6: to like a CO two container or air compression that's
Speaker 6: in your garage that holds all this gel. I know
Speaker 6: it kind of looks tacky on the outside, but at
Speaker 6: least it'll save your house.
Speaker 1: Oh, I see like an automatic deployment system. Yeah, turn
Speaker 1: it on and let's go like a mister system. It's
Speaker 1: a good question. I'll give you an absolute honest response. No,
Speaker 1: I have never built one of those systems into a home.
Speaker 1: I think we have, though, on multiple occasions equipped clients
Speaker 1: with the fire gel in order to deploy. But when
Speaker 1: I tell a client, hey, we could also automatically deploy
Speaker 1: this uh through these very unattractive pipes and this very
Speaker 1: expensive system. Honestly, the answer has always been like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I think we got it.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll get out the hoses and do that.
Speaker 1: If we need to evacuate, uh, you know, we'll give
Speaker 1: ourselves a half an hour of buffer there and get
Speaker 1: it deployed. Because the fact of the matter is, it's
Speaker 1: not one of those situations that requires a constant stream.
Speaker 1: It just requires the burst the spray and then you're done.
Speaker 1: And I think probably, and I'm speaking here beyond my
Speaker 1: area of known expertise, but I would think probably I
Speaker 1: would rather be holding the hose to control how much
Speaker 1: it's see how well it's sticking, and how much gel
Speaker 1: I need to throw onto the wall before moving on,
Speaker 1: as opposed to just sort of blindly trusting an automatic
Speaker 1: disbursement system to handle that for me. Because in different situations,
Speaker 1: a little more wind on this side of the house
Speaker 1: versus no wind on that side of the house. On
Speaker 1: the side of the house without wind, I may go
Speaker 1: light on the side of the house with the wind,
Speaker 1: I might go thicker than normal. I'd rather be in
Speaker 1: control of that. And again, when we're talking about dispersing
Speaker 1: fire gel. I'm not talking about ignoring evacuation orders or
Speaker 1: slowing down getting out of the house, or staying home
Speaker 1: and trying to fight the fire with a fire hose.
Speaker 1: I'm just talking about me or someone in the household
Speaker 1: applying this gel before we leave. And I'd rather have
Speaker 1: I'd rather have the human judgment as to how well
Speaker 1: it goes on and where and what, and Plus there
Speaker 1: are other things that I want to put the fire
Speaker 1: gel on other than just the house itself, the walls
Speaker 1: of the house and the windows. I want to put
Speaker 1: some maybe up on the top edge of the roofline,
Speaker 1: on the facierboard which the sprayers would miss, and also
Speaker 1: on patio furniture, on plants, on anything that might be
Speaker 1: hanging out in the yard that needs protection as well.
Speaker 1: But that it's an excellent question, Roger, and I appreciate
Speaker 1: you bringing it up. All right, when we come back,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe one more call and then into the question
Speaker 1: of how do you restart, We'll do all of this
Speaker 1: and more right after the news. You are Home with
Speaker 1: Dean Sharp, the House Whisperer on KFI. This has been
Speaker 1: Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into the
Speaker 1: live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning
Speaker 1: from six to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning
Speaker 1: from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand
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