Key Takeaways:
When wildfire preparedness comes up in facility management discussions, the conversation usually turns to emergency response.
Leaders review evacuation procedures, inspect fire protection systems, coordinate with first responders and prepare business continuity plans. While these efforts are essential, Eric Kurfehs, owner of 5K Land Management, says they’re only part of the equation.
He says the work that determines whether a fire reaches a building happens long before smoke appears on the horizon.
As owner of 5K Land Management, Kurfehs helps commercial and institutional property owners across Texas and Oklahoma reduce wildfire risk by managing the vegetation surrounding their facilities. The former firefighter says too many organizations focus on how they’ll respond to a wildfire while overlooking the conditions that allow a fire to threaten their property in the first place.
“We’re reducing the fuel load around the facility,” Kurfehs says. “If there is a fire threat there, we’re clearing those threats out to reduce fire risk.”
For facility managers responsible for schools, hospitals, office campuses, manufacturing facilities and government buildings, he says this preventative work deserves the same attention as fire alarms and sprinkler inspections.
Wildfire risk isn’t limited to forests hundreds of miles away. Many commercial properties sit next to wooded areas, undeveloped land or overgrown parcels where fire can spread quickly.
Kurfehs says he recently worked with a welding facility surrounded by approximately 15 acres of unmanaged vegetation. Besides dense brush and mature trees, homeless encampments had developed throughout the property, creating an immediate ignition risk.
“The homeless were lighting fires,” he says. “There was an immediate fire threat there.”
By clearing vegetation around the facility, his team removed the fuel that could allow a fire to spread toward buildings containing welding gases and other hazardous materials.
While not every property presents that level of risk, Kurfehs says facility managers should routinely evaluate what surrounds their buildings and remove vegetation that poses a fire risk.
One of the most effective ways to reduce wildfire risk is to establish defensible space, an area surrounding a structure where vegetation is managed to slow or stop the spread of fire.
For facilities with sufficient acreage, Kurfehs recommends maintaining at least 100 feet around buildings whenever possible.
“The answer to how many feet depends on how much property you own,” he says. “I recommend maintaining everything within your boundary, or if the building sits on a lot of acreage, I recommend maintaining at least 100 feet.”
Creating defensible space doesn’t mean stripping properties of every tree or landscaped feature. He explains, “Regular landscaping is not an issue. What is an issue are things like native vegetation or brushy untouched areas.”
Areas that are not responsibly managed can become overgrown with dead plants, invasive species and trees that are too close together. This increases fire risk and intensity, and boosts the likelihood it will spread to nearby structures.
As a former firefighter, Kurfehs still thinks in terms of fuel loads, which he defines as the combustible vegetation that feeds a wildfire.
“The more vegetation that you have, the more fuel you have for a fire or fuel load, as firefighters call it,” he says.
One of the biggest threats comes from ladder fuels, which is defined as vegetation or materials that allow a fire to climb from the ground into tree canopies. “So, if one tree catches on fire, then the next tree is going to catch on fire and the next tree is going to catch on fire,” Kurfehs explains. “It’s all going to go up those trees.”
When flames reach the tree canopy, wind can transport burning embers and debris to nearby buildings. “It’s going to blow embers and debris towards the building that are potentially on fire or hot enough to cause an issue,” he says.
Removing ladder fuels can significantly reduce the chance that a surface fire escalates into one capable of threatening structures. Ladder fuels comprise vegetation like tall grasses, shrubs and tree branches, plus non-vegetation items such as woodpiles and wooden fence posts.
Ronnie Wendt is the owner of In Good Company Communications and a freelance writer specializing in articles for the facilities management, aviation, RV and automotive, meetings and events, security, logistics and business technology industries.
