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Off-the-grid fire fighting

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Out There:
Adam,
Thanks for your reply. I'm my own water company. Currently drawing from a 45' deep drilled well. My plan is to build a cistern (if I can't find a suitable tank) for rainwater collection. I also have the year-round stream which leads to a river a few hundred feet from the house. These could be water sources for a sprinkler system and/or a regular firefighting connection. So I'd need to have a pressure tank (I was thinking of the 85 gallon version) and a fossil-fueled pump.

I wouldn't say I'm so much "worried" as I am trying to foresee all potential problems. Also, insuring a remote house can be expensive, especially if you live a good distance from the closest fire department. THAT's why I was thinking of a sprinkler system. There are no water mains in my area, either, so I'm trying to think of a way to provide water for firefighting.

As to my batteries…. the room is vented through the roof. The box, itself, is also directly vented with an S-vent, through an outside wall, (with anti-vermin screening). The wood stove will be set on tile over concrete (floor) with rigid fiberglass insulation behind a river rock surround (walls), with appropriate clearance. The nice thing with this stove…. it's a soapstone stove which does not get quite so hot on the outside as a cast iron or boilerplate steel stove. There are lots of things already in place. I'm trying to provide back-ups to my protection system and… potentially…. back-ups for my back-ups.
-Brian

Mary B:
One thing many of the Northern Minnesota rural people are doing is installing sprinkler systems for their roofs with a gas or diesel powered pump in case of a forest fire. Still a lot of blow down trees up there that could explode into a massive fire in the right conditions. So a gas or diesel backup pump system is already used in places.

birdhouse:
brian- i hear you on the insurance thing.  i still have yet to get insurance for my off grid ranch. 

what's the company with the jingle?  "go after your dreams, we'll protect them"  i called those folks.  told them about my dream, and they wouldn't protect it.  when you get questions like: "where's the nearest fire hydrant?" and the answer is: "30+ miles away" you don't tend to get too far into the conversation.  i was only looking for coverage from theft and fire.  that's it. 

either way, it's going to be hard to get an insurance company to sign off on a home built sprinkler system where when a pressure tank falls below a certain pressure, then it activates a pressure sensing relay, which then activates an auto start mechanism, that then starts a generator, that then starts a pump from a water source that certainly has limits, that then feeds through pipe to finally (hopefully) puts out the fire.

i have heard of code compliant gravity feed sprinkler systems with multi thousand gallon tanks.   the problem you run into here, is you only gain ~.5psi per foot of stored water height. certainly, sprinkler heads can be put closer than standard to account for lower PSI systems, but unless your property has some pretty large hills, it's hard to support a large volume of water very high in the air.   

your best bet might be to have large poly tanks filled via rainwater, your well ect.  talk with your local fire folks, and put whatever fittings they like to use on the tank.  i think their standard is 2" quick connect style fittings.  also have your own way (pump) to use the water for putting out a fire. 

i had a 37,000 acre forest fire come within a mile of my ranch last summer (mile marker 28 fire if you wanna google it)  after many talks with the fire fighters, prevention was all they spoke of.  de-limbing trees, removing brush, getting pine needles off the roof and out of the gutters... 

i told them we had a full 1550 gal poly tank, they instantly said:  wow, we should easily be able to save you place with that.  they mix in a foaming solution so the moisture sticks around, rather than just draining.  pulling water from an above ground tank is far easier for fire fighter than from a well or a stream. 

i got my 1550 gal poly tank for $600.  there were three at time time (new) that were ordered for a project that went south.  i wish i would have bought at least one more.  you can find these tanks pretty cheap if you look around. 

just some thoughts :)

adam

thirteen:
I cannot get insurance on my place I am to isolated.   I live back in the sticks. I do like the trees just outside my doors. The brush is close also. If it burns then I'll just build another one. The 4 mile long canyon I am in has steep side mountains. If a fire starts this will go up in about 30 minutes and even if I were to clear things away 300 ft like they want you to my place will still be engulfed.  I was also a volunteer firemen for 5 years. they will not even send a firetruck down into this valley it is to steep,  no fire crews it is to dangerous and there is only 2 ways out. the same for an ambulance during  the winter forget it. Life flight only if you can call. No cell phone reception.
Put your tank under ground if you have cold winters. Put a relay in for remote control to be able to start your pump from 1/2 mile away. No need to run your water out until necessary. Unless you can supply it with water with another pump. A good shelter for it will also help with proper filtering for air. Just a thought 13

madlabs:
Brian,

As mentioned, make sure that your water tank has the fitting that fits your local FD's suction pipe. Here we use 3". Make sure that the engine can get to and away from the tank. Keep access as close as possible, some engines only have 30' feet of suction pipe. If they have to use longer non-reinforced hose it slows things way down.

Make the area defensible or the the FD won't try to defend it. A few years back here in CA we had 3000 fires burning at the same time due to a statewide lighting storm. We had to abandon several homes because they weren't defensible and we had no air support available. The owners were PISSED when we told them too bad and see ya. On the other hand we saved a whole cluster of homes that were defensible.

Jonathan

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