What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

.....Wildfires?? :banghead: :banghead:
In the furure, with water resources drying up, it gonna be pretty tough to protect ourselves from fire, no?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070513/...e_us/wildfires

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

Where's the "big one" when you need it?:wink:

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

Resurrect the traditional southern dirt yard! Back in the day, kitchens (which burned a lot and were too hot to have in the house in the summer) were built as separate buildings and were built far enough from the house and barn that if the kitchen house burned it didn't take everything else with it. The yard around the homestead was hard-packed dirt (down here: Georgia red clay) which was routinely swept. The dirt yard cut down on vermin and served as a fire break.

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

In a SHTF situation fighting fires will present a huge problem for everyone. Fire prevention, as always, is the key.

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

Ironically our problem in FL with wildfires stems from not having enough wildfires!

The fires are a natural part of the ecosystem down here. Since we're overdeveloped with non-firefriendly housing they try to suppress the fires. This means that lots and lots of fuel gets stacked up till eventually something really big gets going. I remember years ago driving out on Hwy 50 East of Orlando and looking at something that sure looked a lot like Hell to me.

The taller FL pines aren't much of a problem, they have fire retardant bark and the needles only grow at the top of the trees. Keep the heavy brush a reasonable distance from your home, mow your grass and build your home out of something nonflamable and you should be good to go. You can usually see/smell the fire from a distance off giving you time to wet down your yard but you might loose electricity before then so have a manual pump on your well. I see this as another mark in favor of a personal watertower for a cistern, too.

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

In historical japan, merchants used to keep a fire-house in the backyard in case of a city-wide fire (this is the crossover period to all-tile roofs in Japan and Europe)

A firehouse isn't what you'd think it is, it was a plastered blockhouse, thick walls and roof, with giant firedoors. They would place the goods in the store house and plaster the door shut with clay. Then the whole city could burn to the ground--including their own house and shop, and they could reopen the next day.

I would think any Kansas tornado shelter could serve the same task, or even a corner of your own basement, if you arch the top shut with concrete. Firedoors are not such a mystery now and not very expensive.

TS

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

A combination root cellar and firehouse would be just the ticket.

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

Kinda sounds like a big oven.

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

Sure, that's why it's in the backyard, away from the other buildings. In a city fire, you would probably stand there, but get a heck of a tan.

Having one in the basement would require further measures, but I don't think would be expensive, just bulky, like concrete block spaced with rock wool and an inner layer with a fire door.

I wonder if you could use the door from a fire-proof gun-safe?

Actually, except for the door, water would work just as well as an insulator between walls, unless you foresee your house burning for 12 hours.

TS

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

if you are in the SW anywhere you better have a plan to skedaddle because if TSHTF bad enough, here is some o what you got to look forward to:

1-- emergency medical care treatment vanishes, overused and underpaid (already underway)

2-- the place is over-run by Indians from Mayheeco (already underway) but if they lose their jobs en masse you will then witness a "guerra des las castas" that American Whitey is not ready for like the White Hispanics are and have been all along-- due and owing to the fact that they been through em before-- I mean do you think that the Whites of the USA are ready willing and able to liquidate thousands of Indios pobres like the criollo, castiza, and mestizo Salvadorans did in their fracas against the FMLN? I dont think so-- I think it will be fat pickins for the Indios. In fact, in the SW many of the former FMLN have relocated and now have their own "militia" called MS 13 aka "Maras Salvatruchas"

3-- electric grid failure quickly followed by drying up of critical water supplies and hence rioting and quick martial law

4-- oh yeah, wildfires are a likelihood, not a probability and without Uncle Schmuely's firefighters they will burn baby burn

Overall, "Aztlan" will be a really crappy place to be if TSHTF even for a week

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

If you're going to need a bunker to survive a firestorm like that, you'd better have a source of breathable air, because those flames will suck up all the available oxygen.

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

Wyldwil, I wouldn't put too much faith in the thesis that water resources are dwindling. You can make a machine to suck literally tons of water per day, from the air on your roof. Air-->H20
We will never run out of water. Thank heavens.

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

Anty Ep,
As someone who LIVES in the SW, I can answer this with AUTHORITY.

YOU BET YOUR ASS WE ARE READY, WILLING AND ABLE TO 'LIQUIDATE' (kill, destroy, wipe out, whatever) thousands of all those MESSICANS.

And don't for one minute think that all those messicans will just 'hang around' to be shot. Once the shooting starts, their will be a HUGE race to the messican border.

If we set up 'shooting stations' ON the messican border, it will be like shooting fish in a barrel. And make no mistake, there are MILLIONS of us gun owners here in the SW who are ready, willing and able to take care of this problem.

Then we move on to ALL the politicians who caused this problem in the first place. The won't have any place to hide.

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

We just had a bout with the wildfires here in our area of Florida. (The largest fire in Florida's history.) Came about 5 miles from my home. We prepared as best we could however the Forest Service, local and out of town and state firefighters came and did a wonderful job. It was very impressive to drive by the staging area and see 60+ fire trucks and know that there were 40 more out in the field. That said I would like to know how you can draw water from the air as Monifespo posted. Because we all know that the day will come when it is down to what we can do ourselves.

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

Anything else on this? Links? Books? Something?

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

I don't know specifically what technology Manifespo was talking about but you can draw the water out of the air by means of condensation. All you have to do is be able to generate cool temperatures. I researched this because for a time I had considered switching to an airwell. I don't know of an airwell technology that uses the roof, that sounds more like what you'd do for collecting rainwater unless you were going to use a specially designed roof as a dew collector. The airwell I was going to and may still try uses a pipe that draws air in from near the surface of the ground where moisture will generally be highest, passes it through underground to cool the air, the water collects in a resovoir and the air exits above ground. A cyclonic turbine encourages airflow and the pipe zig-zags for maximum cooling surface. Metal pipe would probably conduct heat away from the air the best but you could knock together a proof of concept from PVC cheaply. Once burried there wouldn't be much to see and the intake and exhaust could be located fairly close together to keep things orderly. You'd want screens to exclude frogs, lizards, bugs and the like and you'd probably want to give yourself an access panel to clean out the resovoir.

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

Here's a link that discusses airwells and shows one similar to that I described.

http://www.rexresearch.com/airwells/airwells.htm

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

i got a trash pump piped up to my sewer lagoon for firefighting

if i got to use it im going to really regret it

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

I can second that...

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

As for wildfires...the best thing you can do to protect your property is create a burnout perimeter. This will protect your assets.

In a serious wildfire, you most likely won't be able to survive the smoke (even if the flames don't touch your home) so a good escape plan (and route) should be established ahead of time.

Re: What do all you SHTFers have to say about....
 

Interesting site Rev thank you....... Back to the Florida wildfires. My hubby drove 24 miles on the back road (west to east) before finally turning around. All driven through the fire zone. This was only a small part of the actual area. As for fires set, there was a volunteer fireman arrested last week for doing just that. Here the smoke was horrendous, closing down interstates etc. And this is just one part of Florida fires and a small part of the USA. And while Florida is supposed to have plenty of water, our woodlands are tinder dry, our lakes, ponds, creeks and rivers are drying up. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...home-headlines