Where an ember gets in
An ember enters at an opening where it can settle on something that will burn.
A roof is seldom burned from the top. The common route is an ember that lands in a gutter, a vent or a gap at the eave and smoulders until it finds fuel. The attic is the worst place for a fire to start, because it is hidden and full of dry wood and insulation.
The check is therefore about openings and debris, not about the shingle itself. A sound covering with an open vent is more exposed than a worn covering with every vent screened.
- Embers settle in gutters and at vents
- The attic is hidden and full of fuel
- Openings matter more than the shingle
What the 2015 and 2001 fires show
Fires in this area have come close to houses between the towns.
A fire of about 262 square miles burned between Republic and Nespelem in 2015, in the Kettle Complex fires, and no homes were reported lost that week. The Mount Leona Fire of 2001, in the Kettle River Range, burned about 4,800 to 6,100 acres. Both show that the fire can come through open country near a house, and that the roof and the vents are what the house can control.
The point is not to predict the next fire. It is to make the roof and the vents as hard to ignite as the owner can, before the next season.
- The Kettle Complex fires of 2015
- The Mount Leona Fire of 2001
- Controls on the roof and vents
Clearing the area around the house
Dry growth close to a house wall adds fuel that an ember can reach.
Dry grass, shrubs and stacked wood against the wall under the eave give a fire a route to the house. Keeping a clear strip along the wall, and moving stacked wood away from it, reduces that route. The crew can show where the strip matters most on the specific house.
The owner is responsible for the ground around the house, and the crew does not clear land it does not own. The list it writes records the items it saw so the owner can decide.
- A clear strip along the wall
- Stacked wood moved away from the eave
- Owner decides on the ground beyond the house
Keeping the checks up through the year
Screens, gutters and eave openings need a check each season, not once.
Mesh screens wear, tear and fill with dust. Gutters refill with needles after the autumn. A yearly check in the early part of the season catches the open vent before the fire season starts, and it is the cheapest part of the protection to keep up.
The crew can add the check to the roof record so the owner can see what changed from year to year.
- Yearly check before the fire season
- Mesh replaced when torn
- Gutters cleared after the autumn
Attic vents and the inside of the house
The attic vent is the most common opening an ember reaches, and the check covers its inside too.
A vent that has a screen on the outside can still have a gap where the screen meets the frame. An ember that gets past the outer edge can settle on the insulation or the wood behind it. The crew checks each vent from inside the attic where that is safe, to see the screen is seated on all sides.
Vents in gable ends and in the roof itself are checked the same way. Each one is measured and recorded, so the mesh replaced is the size the opening needs.
- Screen checked from inside the attic
- Screen seated on all sides
- Each vent measured and recorded
What the owner clears and what the crew checks
The owner controls the ground around the house, and the crew controls the roof and the vents.
The owner can clear dry growth from the wall, move stacked wood and keep the gutter free of needles. The crew checks the roof, the eave, the vents and the gutter for openings and debris, and it lists the items it saw so the owner can decide what to clear.
A split of the work this way keeps the record clear. Each item on the list has a name, a location and a status, and the owner can tick each one off as it is done.
- Owner clears the ground and the wood
- Crew checks roof, eave and vents
- Each item listed with a status
The gutter and the leaf line in autumn
Leaves and needles that build in the gutter through autumn are the dry fuel an ember finds first.
A gutter that fills with needles and leaves after the autumn turns into a tinder box along the eave. In a dry season an ember that lands in the debris can smoulder unseen until it reaches the fascia and the rafter tail. The crew checks for the debris line at each visit and notes the gutter sections that collect the most.
Gutter guards keep the leaves out and let the water in, and they are fitted where the debris builds fastest. A guard is a barrier, not a seal, so the gutter is still cleared once a year where the guard is not used.
- Debris line checked each visit
- Gutter guards fitted where debris builds
- Yearly clearing where no guard is fitted
