Four years before Palisade and Eaton The fire destroyed Los AngelesIrvine prepared for his own fire.
A backbone summer angel landscape burned down and was lit as Santa Ana roared the area at 80 mph. October 26, 2020 at the morning Silverado fire break out.
Deploy firefighters. The city has launched an emergency plan. Orchard Hills residents, a community that spans the interface of wild city and sits on the fast-growing fire path, escapes, wondering if they have ever seen their homes again.
Orange County Fire Department firefighters worked hard to protect homes near Irving Orchard Hill during the October 2020 Silverado fire.
Everyone will. The flames licked the nearby suburbs and baked a few leaves around the perimeter, but did not damage a single residence in the community.
The fire exchange is A clear victory – The product of meticulous planning of neighborhoods, the design of their houses, and the hard plans that the city has formulated.
Los Angeles hopes to strengthen its future fires when Orchard Mountain can be used as a road map to get there.
Of course, the comparison is not accurate. Irvine is a newer city that has been built over the years using lessons learned from dozens of deadly fires. Altadena and Pacific Palisades are communities with canopies and centuries-old houses, sometimes narrow, sometimes winding roads filled with vegetation.
But as climate change burns time and time again, experts say successful cases should be extracted and mined.
You might argue that the fire resistance of Orchard Hill began a century ago when Irvine Valencia growers planted avocado orchards on hills above the community. Over the decades since then, Orchard has grown into one of the largest avocado producers in the United States 100,000 trees Covering an area of 800 acres.
It offers the community more than just avocado sauce.
“The orchard has a built-in irrigation system, so the landscape has been watered,” said Sean Doran, fire chief with the Orange County Fire Department.
Doran, who fought the Silverado Fire, said his team had a step back due to a decade-long partnership between Orchard Hills and the Fire Department. Developer Irvine Co. broke the ground in 2014.
In Irvine, construction plans must be conducted through a fire station through a developer’s conditional use permit.
“This is inherent in the process,” Dolan said. “If you are a developer, at some point, you will be walking at our door.”
The partnership between the developer and the fire department brings strict rules for what cannot be established and cannot be established, and many home buyers thank the regulations.
Ron Nestor, resident and senior principal of Orchard Hill William Hezmalhalch Architectwhile walking the dog on the morning of the Silverado fire, noticed a small piece of smoke. An hour later, he evacuated his home.
Ron Nestor and his dog Enzo enjoyed his backyard this month in Orchard Hills in Irvine.
He left for three days. When he came back, there was no damage.
“It proves how this place is planned,” he said.
Five months ago, when Nester moved into Orchard Hill, the community’s fire protection program (Irvine Co.) Praise on the websiteis the factor of moving in. The parameters were created by developers, fire departments and third-party fire behavior analysts who examined wind patterns, terrain and fire history.
Orchard Hills designed numerous defensive forces to meet the fire: nearby, in the yard and on the open-air land of the house itself.
It starts with the fuel-refined area – an open space around the community, which can be modified to reduce fire risk by replacing combustible vegetation with fire-resistant shrubs. The orchard mountain area is filled with prickly cactus, Japanese honeysuckle and Formosa Firethorn.
Orange County Fire Guide Three different fuel modification areas are called for, with different building requirements and shrub removal rates typically extending to 200 feet outside the perimeter. If developers want to shrink the area to 100 feet, they have to make up for it in other ways, such as building exterior walls nearby, or adding extra fortifications to nearby houses, so they don't like it's lit, belt inward Come on a fire.
The open spaces around Orchard Mountain are filled with prickly cactus, Japanese honeysuckle and Formosa Firethorn.
“Not everything is concrete, so we can give some leeway in one area and tighten the other,” Dolan said. “We are here to support a fire-rich community. Whatever happens is for both sides,” he said. Success.”
For the case of Orchard Hill, the Fire Department worked with farmers to adjust the spacing of avocado trees, with fewer trees per acre, and cleared brushes and sage from the orchard to limit flammable objects in the 170-foot fuel-touch area. .
The next level of defense is where the open space meets the edge of the outside of the house.
Irvine Co. Development.
It strengthens the house along the fire standards required along other nearby areas. These sections require exterior doors and rigorous guidance for fire assessment of outdoor functions such as decks and lattices.
The last line of defense is nearby.
You won't find wooden craftsmen on Orchard Hill. In fact, there isn't much bare wood at all, and if anything, it's considered lowered. Nester said the masonry walls and vinyl fences separate the characteristics, and a few wooden doors are isolated by metal columns, so they cannot radiate fire to the house.
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1. View of asphalt shingle vents placed on the roof tiles of the house. 2. Masonry walls and vinyl fences separate the characteristics, and a few wooden doors are isolated by metal columns, so they cannot emit fire to the house. 3. Ron Nestor's home, it's fire-resistant.
Houses in Orchard Hill constructed two factors: radiant heat and ash invasion. Radiant heat is the heat projected by the fire. If the appearance of the house is made of flammable materials, the house can be heated to the ignition point. Therefore, the houses are mainly Mediterranean, wrapped in stucco or fiber cement (unsuppressible material) and thrown a few stones and bricks.
Another factor is the invasion of embers, when embers enter the house through the opening and ignite the house from the inside. The houses in Orchard Mountain are equipped with tempered glass. Stronger than single pane That often breaks out. Mesh filters for roof vents prevent embers. The roof is laid with concrete or clay tiles. The concrete tiles are located flat, preventing embers from entering. Use barrel clay tiles and the opening at the bottom of each row is plugged with a bird block, which makes the bird block out.
The HOA guide is strictly firm and regulates acceptable plant types and places where trees are allowed. Nester said he thanked the precautions taken.
“People believe their homes will survive because when the community is tested, it will stick with it,” Nester said. “Everything goes exactly as planned.”
Dolan said the fuel-adjusting area combined with the walls, helping to stop Silverado's shooting.
“I watched the fire burn to the edge of the wall and died,” he said.
Fires after the fire show that one of the most critical aspects of an emergency is the road. In Camp Fire in 2018, eight out of 84 people who died were trapped in traffic jams as the flames roared on them.
Most of Irvine is guided by smooth, wide roads, making it easier for people to evacuate and firefighting. In Orchard Hill, the 7-foot-wide path extends behind the property, so firefighters and vehicles can get better access to the back of the house.
Bobby Simmons, an emergency service manager at Irvine, helped coordinate the city’s strategy.
In 2019, camp and Woolsey The year before the fire and Silverado fires, Simmons helped develop a 25-person initiative to develop an all-inclusive wildfire plan, so if one person breaks out in Irvine, every city department will fully understand its role.
Firefighters defended the homes in Orchard Hill in 2020. Silverado fire licked the suburbs near Irvine, but did not damage any homes in the community.
The police department dispatched patrols to specific intersections to aid in evacuation. Traffic Management Center remotely controls signals to avoid traffic congestion by avoiding all the lights that are green on the street. Simmons said the Emergency Management Office mobilized the Emergency Operations Center and activated an emergency login page on its website, resulting in a live evacuation map – bandwidth that delivered more than 3 million visitors in three days without crashing.
“We developed the plan, challenged it and tested it so much that when the rubber met on October 26, we provided a structured process for the chaotic events,” Simmons said. “Think of it,” All the factors, it went smoothly.”
During the Silverado fire, the city evacuated 90,000 people from northern Irving Mountains, such as Orchard Hills and Portola Springs.
The Silverado fire turned the sky orange when it burned near a house in Orchard Mountain in 2020.
Ultimately, the Silverado fire still caused losses. Although Orchard Hill was not damaged, five buildings were destroyed elsewhere, 11 structures were damaged, and Two firefighters Seriously injured. Although traffic quickly flowed out of the neighborhood, the car got a backup of more than a mile, as the lights entering Highway 5 were controlled by Caltrans instead of Irvine, and could not be programmed to accept the program from The car of this car. northeast.
There is always more learning.
“Now, we've determined the course we've learned to prepare for the next one,” Simmons said.
