100. Preventing Wildfire Disasters A Conversation with OP Almaraz
Are you prepared for the wildfire season? Don't rely on luck – arm yourself with strategies to protect your home from wildfires. I sat down with O.P. Almaraz, a seasoned disaster restoration expert and owner of Allied Restoration and Allied Disaster Defense. We dissect the concept of home hardening and how this preventative approach could mean the difference between disaster and survival. We also delve into a real-life case study involving the Lahaina tragedy. You’ll learn how one house survived, while everything around it burned to the ground.
As we navigate through a hot fire season in California, we also discuss the fears, preparations, and safety measures surrounding this potential disaster. Discover the steps Cal Fire and city politicians are taking to mitigate risks and learn from past disasters. From detailing evacuation routes to vegetation clearing, gain practical tips to make your home safer. O.P. also shares his top three steps to minimize wildfire risks and the importance of community involvement in spreading awareness and preparedness. Tune in to this episode to protect your most valuable asset - your home.
🎧 If you enjoyed this episode, don't keep it to yourself! Share it with your friends and help spread the knowledge. Remember to hit the like button, subscribe for more insightful content, and leave a review to let us know your thoughts. Your support means the world to us! 🌟
100. Preventing Wildfire Disasters A Conversation with OP Almaraz
Are you prepared for the wildfire season? Don't rely on luck – arm yourself with strategies to protect your home from wildfires. I sat down with O.P. Almaraz, a seasoned disaster restoration expert and owner of Allied Restoration and Allied Disaster Defense. We dissect the concept of home hardening and how this preventative approach could mean the difference between disaster and survival. We also delve into a real-life case study involving the Lahaina tragedy. You’ll learn how one house survived, while everything around it burned to the ground.
As we navigate through a hot fire season in California, we also discuss the fears, preparations, and safety measures surrounding this potential disaster. Discover the steps Cal Fire and city politicians are taking to mitigate risks and learn from past disasters. From detailing evacuation routes to vegetation clearing, gain practical tips to make your home safer. O.P. also shares his top three steps to minimize wildfire risks and the importance of community involvement in spreading awareness and preparedness. Tune in to this episode to protect your most valuable asset - your home.
🎧 If you enjoyed this episode, don't keep it to yourself! Share it with your friends and help spread the knowledge. Remember to hit the like button, subscribe for more insightful content, and leave a review to let us know your thoughts. Your support means the world to us! 🌟
Thanks for listening!
George Siegal:
Hi everybody, thank you for joining me on this week's Tell Us How to Make it Better podcast. Today, we're going to talk about a pressing issue that should concern all of us the ever-present threat of wildfires and how we can prepare ourselves to survive these raging infernos. My guest is OP Almarez, the owner of Allied Restoration and Allied Disaster Defense. He brings with him over 30 years of hands-on experience. Op is on a mission to change the game, preparing communities to confront wildfires head-on and minimize their devastating impact. In this episode, you will learn what you need to do to protect your loved ones and property from the imminent threat of wildfires. I'm George Siegal, and this is the Tell Us How to Make it Better podcast. Your home is probably your biggest investment and every week we show you warning signs and solutions to help you protect it. Tell Us How to Make It Better is partnering with the Readiness Lab, the home for podcasts, webinars, and training in the field of emergency and disaster services. Op, thank you so much for joining us today.
O.P. Almaraz:
My Pleasure, Thanks, george. Thanks for having me.
George Siegal:
Yeah, so when I found you on LinkedIn, I saw the stuff you do with fires and fire prevention, so tell us what you're working on and what you do to make things better,
O.P. Almaraz:
And about three years ago I started to get a request for home hardening the new term that we all hear nowadays. Right, that sometimes a little confusing, but insurance companies were requiring homeowners to harden their homes against wildfire and I had no idea what that meant. So I dove into trying to figure out what this was, and through my series of just a deep dive I was able to run across IBHS, the Insurance Institute for Business, home and Safety, which is one of the leaders in research of wildfire and other disasters. And then I also ran into a boss check where you spray the vegetation to make it non-flemable. The same part that you see dumping out of the airplanes that's red. So I got into that. So now we're doing prevention and disaster restoration together.
George Siegal:
Let me ask you about home hardening, because I've had other podcasts about this and I know how important it is. Our insurance company is starting to put that in policies. You have to have done certain things in order for your fire coverage to even exist. You know what's crazy, george?
O.P. Almaraz:
We're getting calls from homeowners and Mrs Smith is just finding us on Google and she says hey, you guys do vents right, the ember resistant vents. We're like, yes. And so one of the first things we ask is Mrs Smith, if this is being prompted by insurance, can you please send us the letter? And whether it's farmers, auto club, pure chub, cincinnati, they all have a letter they're sending to the homeowner and they're dictating to the homeowner. This is what we need you to do in order for us to reengage you in your policy for next year, and if you don't, there's a chance that it's going to be non-renewed. And so the customers are calling us and they're saying I got two more weeks. I got two more weeks before my policy expires. Can you help me? So it is becoming a demand.
George Siegal:
Yeah, I mean insurance policies are. It's tough enough to get them to pay on anything, it seems. But now that that home hardening is, we're so aware of it. Now, when you saw that tragedy recently in Lahaina and just that whole area wiped out, but there was one house that survived, have you had a chance to take a look at that and had any thoughts about how one house made it? Well, everything else was gone.
O.P. Almaraz:
This isn't that interesting and the people are calling it the miracle house. And when we, when I read the article, the homeowners were doing a remodel a couple years prior to that. One of the things they changed was they changed the roofing to be a metal roof, which is it's a class A fire rated material, just like tile is, which a lot of us in the West United States have tile roofs. Even a composition shingle roof is considered a class A fire rated roof. So the roof in and of itself was good, but a lot of us have that type of class A roof. One of the things they did that was significant is they cleared from the zero to five of the perimeter of the home, zero to five feet. They cleared all of that around the perimeter and they said they didn't clear it because of wildfire, they cleared it because of termites. They didn't want the termites to invade the home because the home was many, many years old and made of wood, and so the zero to five really became kind of like the emphasis of OK, wow, this really works.
O.P. Almaraz:
And one of the reasons behind that, George, is, If you have your home here, this is the exterior wall, embers are flying and embers, by the way are 90% a result of ignitions during a wildfire, and so that was dictated by the IBHS. But embers are flying and they hit the home, and then they drop to the ground, and if we have any vegetation there that is flammable, that's what begins to ignite, and so when it's clear, you have the embers dropping right down to the ground, there's nothing to ignite. And when you look at Lahaina we've seen these horrific videos embers are flying. They're like bullets. It's incredible. And so we think that or at least by looking at this from a scientific standpoint, without having been there these are the significant things they did that helped prevent ignition.
George Siegal:
Now, ultimately there has to be a certain amount of luck involved, even if you're as prepared as you can, I mean you can do everything right and still have something go wrong. So when you look at the rest of that area, are you seeing any early indications of what could have gone so wrong that so many people were wiped out? I mean, that's just that looks like Paradise California all over again, and you just would never expect that in Hawaii.
O.P. Almaraz:
You know what that? I think what was absolutely, very, very significant was the high winds, and here in Southern California we have winds that are called the Santa Ana winds and they pop up and they're coming here in the next few months and when those winds kick in, these embers now just have grown legs and they're flying so much further. But it's really interesting. I know there's a lot of people that have ideas as to how it started, why it happened all of that. All we know is that what a tragedy that was, and it's still the people going through it now and then understanding that the kids were led out of school and they had to go home, probably to a home where their parents weren't there, and you have, it's just. It's just very, very scary and tragic.
George Siegal:
So it is, and it really highlights how important it is to have a plan and then to be able to implement that plan. When we made our documentary film the Last House Standing, we had a fire expert on who was saying nobody wakes up the day of a fire and makes their plan. You have to have planned this out on a nice day so when the bad day happens, you're ready to kick into action.
O.P. Almaraz:
Yes, it's so very true. And I think the thing, george, is that prevention is not sexy, prevention is not attractive, prevention is not something that we say, great, let's go make a Saturday of it, but we need to like this, this Lahaina becomes one of the many wake-up wake-up calls that we should Listen to and really make an effort. And some of these things, george, could be done as a DIY. I mean, we could do these things ourselves, as long as we we schedule time to make it happen. But preparation is absolutely key, 100%.
George Siegal:
Yeah, one of the things that surprised me. I had a gentleman on who makes a fire ladder that's a house length of the house ladder that just swings out so you could climb down and at first I was thinking that was kind of bulky, but then he showed me those ones that are all bunched up and you throw them out the window and he said most people have never even practiced with that, they just have it in there upstairs so they feel like they have a a bit of security. Anything you have, you need to practice, don't you?
O.P. Almaraz:
Absolutely. You know we have a we're building a, a Preparedness contingency plan for our company, and so part of what we're doing there is we have to run the play, we have to practice the evacuation, we have to practice these things, and you know, like when we were in school we were forced to practice this. Right, you have the alarm that goes off. Everybody run to the, you know location, where the basketball courts are, and then you get to hang out and you know you spend a couple of hours of just goofing off the reality though, is that this is the muscle memory that we need to engage For our own homes and our children, and they should understand if we're evacuated.
O.P. Almaraz:
This is the meeting place, so there's a lot less confusion. So, absolutely, george, I think prevention and running the play of the plan is crucial. And Is this a matter of how many of us Do it? And I said, when I say how many of us, I'm including myself, right, so we have to be able to run the play and and because of this show, I promise I'm gonna do that in the next couple of weeks. So now I'm committed, I have to we're gonna hold you to it.
George Siegal:
You know it's it's. It's not funny, but it's ironic because of what I do. You would think that I would have done all that stuff and I'm lax on certain things as Well and when we see first responders after floods or fires or any tragedy, and those guys just bravely run in there and are saving people, they're not just starting it that day, they've practiced it, they know what they're doing. I don't think people take disasters that seriously. What's your sense of that?
O.P. Almaraz:
Yeah, and what's interesting is that we actually employ 12 Firefighters right now and they are the ones that do the home assessments for the wildfire prevention, and so when I listen to them and I listen to their stories, these, these men and women have this heart to serve people and they have been rigorously trained and it just becomes part of their DNA and so even after they leave the service, they are still very much so a servant to the community and you can see it, it's so. It's really kind of amazing how much they go out of the way to serve people, but Practicing right in your right. It's not their first time, but they've done it time and time and time again, and we need to get that into our muscle memory too. At least you know Twice a year of what we can do and communicating the plan with our family and Communicating the plan with our friends, in case that we can't communicate with other people that are near bio.
George Siegal:
So it's it's very important now for those that are watching this on video behind you, the background that you have, I'm afraid to drop a cigarette. I mean that looks like some of that grass now. You guys had a lot of rain in California this the past winter. What are you thinking? What's your fear? Coming into fire season there?
O.P. Almaraz:
so we consult with a few foresters and they're afraid, and you know, because we had significant rain means we had significant growth, and this is the season where the vegetation begins to die out or dry out, and the vegetation doesn't consume moisture like it, like it used to months back.
O.P. Almaraz:
So we had this influx of rain here this last week, but the vegetation is not absorbing moisture the way it used to, and so we still have this fuel that's out there, and so they're they're very concerned, and they're they're, they're getting prepared for what's coming. As a matter of fact, here's what I'll tell you Cal fire has just agreed to do what's called a ground application of fire retardant, and so we've been contacted as one of the resources to assist in spraying From the ground, and so this is the first time that they've engaged this, and it just shows you how much they're looking for new tools to say we need to prevent, and when there's an incident, we need all the help we can get. So they're preparing for what could be a pretty hot fire season here when the winds pop up.
George Siegal:
Now in my film we covered the Woolsey fire from 2018. I grew up in Pacific Palisades so I was used to that kind of thing, that fear, happening every year. But it just seemed like things just fell apart there and I had some residents tell me the fire department wasn't even allowed to come in and fight fires because of the mutual aid that they have going to other communities. So they thought it was just a colossal screw up from all ends. Do you feel everybody's a little more prepared now? Do you think we learned from past disasters things like paradise, not having enough ways to get out of a community? I mean, are we getting better?
O.P. Almaraz:
That's a great question and I think we're getting better. I think some of the city politicians are making a point to encourage the community to have more meetings and they're getting more funding to do more things around the city Clearing vegetation. The evacuation routes are now more significant. They're paying more attention to these things, which is crucial because when it comes time to evacuate, if you were in Palisades, all of PCH was jam-packed with people trying to leave and that was chaotic and to your point where the firefighters weren't fighting the fire. One of the key components that I've learned from firefighters is the first key is safety for all, and when the wildfire gets so ahead of them and they can't do anything, the next resort is get people out. That's it, that is their focal point Get people out as much as possible, because they cannot stop this fire, battle this fire. But I do believe, city by city, they're getting better with their preparation and they're spending a lot more time talking about it.
George Siegal:
And one of the things that we learned also is people love to have palm trees in their yard, but those are pretty dangerous. When the fire starts they may look pretty against your house on a nice day, but once the wind starts blowing, you've got a potential disaster on your hands. No, absolutely.
O.P. Almaraz:
The palm trees will emit, the palm fronds will ignite and then they'll start to blow. Same thing with Italian cypresses we see these beautiful tall Italian cypress, and a lot of these homes use them for privacy, which I get it, which is great. Same thing with bamboo People use this for privacy, but those two will ignite so quickly that it's really detrimental to the property to have them in the close proximity to the home. But you're right, and a lot of these things we have to begin to engage the homeowners as to. This is not the best product or the best plant to have near your home.
O.P. Almaraz:
One last thing George will say about that is when we go out to do these inspections and these assessments for wildfire, sometimes we're met with the landscape architect and we do a walkthrough. We start talking about some of the things that have to be removed from the home or from the proximity of the home, and they almost get offended, you know, like, because they're the ones who put the plant there like that's not going anywhere. I know my customer is not gonna want that removed and we're like we get it. However, wildfire science tells us this is going to be very vulnerable, and so it's still a challenge. Any way you cut it, whether it's a homeowner or whether it's an architect, the vegetation is a challenge.
George Siegal:
I bet. Now I live in Florida and I'm always amazed that people here are still building a lot of wood-framed houses on the second floor when we have the technology and the knowledge to build it better. In California we have technologies that would make houses safer from fires. Why do you think people aren't just diving into that? Why would you ever build or remodel a house and not have that in the front of your mind, seeing what happens every year?
O.P. Almaraz:
That's a great question. I think if the homeowner is going to build a home, they definitely should be looking at steel. There are steel companies that are slowly but surely making progress when the entire home is built to steal and if you've been to paradise, you may have seen a couple of these that they've constructed them from steel, almost as an example Of what could be done in In. But you know what, george, I don't know. I don't know if cost is a major factor right now still I'm not sure but but absolutely it would be worth. It would be worth the investment to to just know that you're that much safer From from disaster, absolutely.
George Siegal:
I mean even to have a system where you could spray gel on your house before you left, or you could have fireproof paint. Aren't there products now that you could add after the fact that make your house safer?
O.P. Almaraz:
Yes. So there are a few different fire sprinkler companies out there where they set up sprinklers on your roof or the perimeter of your home and so if you were to be evacuated, you push a button and then it begins to Spray the perimeter of your home, which is good because it'll help with with preventing embryo ignition. But when you, when you kick in the the wind speed, you don't know how much of that water is actually going down onto a round in property when you've got the wind blowing so hard. But here's one thing I'll share, george, for your listeners, on things they can do if, if they have a little bit of time before they evacuate, real simple things they can do.
O.P. Almaraz:
Number one go around, walk around the perimeter of your home and remove any flammable materials like cushions from a patio furniture those are gonna ignite. Get those in the home. If you have any vegetation that's that can be pulled out by hand that's around five feet of your home remove that vegetation. Last thing is to use duct tape and tape up all of your vents. So among, if we have an attic that you have, these attic vents, get up on a ladder, tape them up with duct tape. If you've got Vents at the bottom of a crawl space, tape those up, and that's just those things there alone Are gonna increase the chances, the chances of your home surviving, because now you remove the ember Ignition that could go into the attic and could go into a crawl space and ignite and you remove the threat around the perimeter of your home. So I do want to share those those bits and pieces with customers because Even when you have a little bit of time, there's still some things you can do before you leave.
George Siegal:
Now, a lot of people also think if they have some system that can throw water on their house, if just their house was at risk of fire, that water pressure might be strong. But when an entire city is now worried about fire and everybody's running their water, that pressure gets pretty weak, doesn't it?
O.P. Almaraz:
It does it does, and so some of these Systems will be tapped into either a swimming pool or you have to install your own Tank so you can not have to depend on municipal water to get it. Because, you're right, it's being used up. What's the pressure like? What's really going on? You know in some cases they'll shut off certain areas so they can have more pressure for for the fire department. So it is still risky and you're still taking your chance on those types of products, for sure.
George Siegal:
Now, at the time we're doing this interview, we're facing a hurricane that's headed towards Tampa. You guys had a taste of that real briefly A week ago with that. What were your thoughts as you saw a hurricane coming up the the Pacific towards Los Angeles?
O.P. Almaraz:
Yeah, so they were. The news was setting us up for for what could be very, very difficult along the beaches. But a palm springs they knew was gonna get hit and sure enough they had record flooding and it was incredible the amount of water that was poured onto that city Within a short period of time. I think they got record rainfall in one day that they normally get in a year. So Houses flooded, cars, underwater stuff that in Florida people typically see. Right now you kind of you're almost you know used to it here in California. You're like what is happening? We're used to the fire, but now, now we have this flooding also right, and then we had some mudslides that really Caught some havoc for some homes.
George Siegal:
Yeah, fires once they've moved through. I learned a new term that I haven't heard a lot. I always learn things on the weather channel burn scars from when the fires were and then that's where the mudslides happen next. So once the fire is gone, all that vegetation that was holding that hill together, you have other problems you have to worry about. So, true, and there was.
O.P. Almaraz:
We saw that firsthand in Santa Barbara when the wildfires hit. That was a significant fire. And Weeks later here comes the rain. And you're exactly right once the vegetation that has roots in the system of the soil, once that's been removed or burned, forget it. Now We've got another top layer of just loose Dirt that now is being pushed in. And then we saw homes covered In mud, and some of them that, you know, took a while to figure out where they were, but absolutely another Thing to be, to be considered and for us to be prepared for now, do you see any kind of pattern?
George Siegal:
when these disasters happen with fires, whether they're caused by man or caused by nature, it seems like we always hear of some utility company that did something, or somebody did something wrong, or a campfire gone bad. Is there any pattern? Or is it just awful bad luck that then just affects hundreds of thousands of people?
O.P. Almaraz:
You know, I think there's still when, when smokey the bear was was back, was was here. He would say only you can, you know, stop forest fires. And there's some truth to that from the standpoint of you know. People aren't necessarily maliciously igniting brush, although that does happen, but you've got the campfires that are being you. They're not attended properly. Or you have someone driving down the road With the chain that's dragging and those little sparks can cause a fire. Or you have a Vehicle that pulls over to the side that has a lot of heat that could ignite Vegetation to. So human aspect of it definitely plays a part. But we also have lightning strikes. We also have the, like you said, the power outages.
O.P. Almaraz:
You know, I live in this wildland urban interface. So here, when the winds kick up, the utility companies will just shut down the power. So, like they won't, no warning. They'll just say, look, we're done. Because they don't want to have this issue right that a lot of Power companies have been engaged with, which is, you know, they should have shut the power off. Their power line went down, causes ignition, and now it started this raging wildfire. So they're becoming more and more cautious it's, but it's still happening.
George Siegal:
Now I always say everybody needs to make sure, especially for out there heading into fire season. If you can get it and hopefully you can, even though it's ridiculously expensive, make sure you have insurance. What would be the main piece of advice you would have for somebody that lives in an area where they need to be concerned about fires? Mmm, what's?
George Siegal:
In regards to insurance. Well, with regards to insurance, and with regards to things they should start thinking about now, so they're not waiting. Let's just, you know we've talked about it, but let's just kind of summarize what you think people need to be aware of absolutely so you know, when you do things, when you have insurance, what I would say if you have insurance, look at your policy.
O.P. Almaraz:
Okay, I mean, I know it's not something that we all want to do, but the reality is, either look at your policy, read it or have your agent interpret it for you. And what you're looking for is are there limitations to my wildfire risk? And in some cases, the insurance carries will say okay, mr Smith, your home has worked a half a million dollars. Here's your insurance. However, there's a special language at the bottom and says if there's a wildfire, though, we're only going to cover you for 50,000 dollars, and so we don't know that until we experienced the claim. And now we're left with, holy moly, a Major problem, out of pocket expenses, and sometimes it becomes very difficult to rebuild.
O.P. Almaraz:
But look at your policy, number one. Number two you want to be able to Prepare the home in the things that I mentioned earlier. Number one Zero to five go around the perimeter of your home, and I know some of us are attached to our vegetation or to our ornamental plants, but that really does Put your home at risk. It's you're inviting the fire to your front door and just think about that way, like let's keep the fire away, let's not invite it to our front door. So, for example, when the embers do hit the house and they go down to the floor, if you have a shrub there that's near a window which looks kind of nice when you're driving around and the people get to admire your home, that brush will ignite and now it causes heat transfer onto the window and now you've got Window that's busted and now you have evil flames. So around the perimeter of your home zero to five.
O.P. Almaraz:
Number two your events, if you have most, most homes are gonna have the vents and you want to be able to purchase ember resistant vents as an option. Or there's also a 16 inch mesh screen that is sold. So this screen or the ember resistant vent gets installed in Replacement of the existing vent and that will not allow embers into your vent but it will still allow ventilation into your attic area. So the vents are number two. Number three is gutter guards. If you have gutters, that's where you have vegetation flying around, little pieces of debris Landing on the gutters. If you have a screen that you're not gonna have the culmination of Vegetation there that could ignite. So those three things are gonna be the critical things that you can do at home DIY yourself or contact a company like ours. This is what we do for the homeowners that say, hey, I want it done for me, great, then we can do all those things for you. But those are the basic fundamentals of what everyone can do to prepare their home for wildfire.
George Siegal:
It also helps you have to engage your neighbors, because if they have those dangers at their house, when all hell breaks loose, that's that could end up on your property, george, that is.
O.P. Almaraz:
That is the biggest issue is you have one homeowner that's a champion that says, yes, I'm gonna do it, but then the neighbors cause a risk to your home too, and then it goes on and on. So so we have to be able to have these conversations with our neighbors and explain and show them how they are also vulnerable in. Let's just imagine what an entire street would look like that is ready, and then an entire neighborhood, an entire community that has done these things. That would be amazing. But but it's slow moving, george, it's not. It's. It's not taken off like everyone thought it should. So it's one person at a time at this point.
George Siegal:
Well, that's the best. That's the best we can do. Op. All your information Contacts will be in the show notes. I appreciate you making the time to to join me for this and you know I look forward to seeing how that how things go out there for fire season.
O.P. Almaraz:
But I'll be watching that closely we will too, and, george, thank you for having me my. My Feeling here is we just want every homeowner to be a little more prepared Every single year on being able to expect wildfires to happen, because it is going to continue to happen, being ready for an evacuation, being having the home prepared and making sure that you're able to come home to A home that is still standing. So thank you, george, for having me. I appreciate it.
George Siegal:
Thank you. Thank you for joining me today on what is my 100th episode of doing this podcast. All of OPs contact information is in the show notes and if you have a home building or remodeling story, good or bad, I would love to hear from you. Just use the contact form in the show notes and you might end up being featured on an upcoming episode. Thanks again for listening. See you next time.
