Here are some activities to avoid during extreme heatwaves and fire season:
1. Landscape work with power equipment
Lawnmowers, weed trimmers and powered hedge clippers all can create sparks that can land on dry fuel and ignite it. Fire officials said that as the temperature goes up and the relative humidity heads down, even dead grass on a lawn can turn into a fuel source for a fire.
“If you have to do something on a hot day like (Thursday), you have to be out there as early in the morning as possible,” Torres said. “But in some cases, it doesn’t cool off a lot at night, so even real early in the morning is not the safest. Take the day off from it.”
Fire officials said lawns should be trimmed when they are more damp with dew and that any high vegetation should be eliminated before fire conditions are at their worst, to give a property defensible space.
2. Barbecuing
Fire officials said people tend to think of really hot days as good days to get the grill out in the evening. It’s a risky idea, especially if people are not around to keep an eye on the fire.
“Embers can fly and float,” Contra Costa Fire Protection District spokesperson Capt. Chris Toler said. “A typical barbecue might have a vent. Some people use smokers. Both of those can spit embers, and not necessarily small ones. It’s best to barbecue with a group anyway. If you don’t, it’s best to move your activity — music, socializing, whatever — outdoors near the grill.”
3. Welding
Torres said “we come across often” people who build things on their properties, and use a welding tool to do it.
“People don’t think,” Torres said. “But again, flying sparks.”
Torres said that if a person has to weld on a hot day, they should make sure they are near a water source such as a hose and have a phone handy to call 911.
4. Hiking
The onset of a heat wave is not the time to start a new exercise program, fire officials said. To start that program with a hike up one of the many Bay Area hills or mountains is an even worse idea, they said.
The danger to hikers is less about fire, and more about putting themselves at risk because they’re not properly prepared for heat — and pulling in resources that could be used in other ways.
“People equate the hot weather with, ‘Now this is the best time to start losing weight,’ ” Toler said. “Inevitably, that can end very badly. And where that comes into fire safety danger is that if we have a hiker who’s injured, ill or missing, we have to devote a lot of our resources to that person, when we may need them elsewhere.”
5. Never use fireworks
Fire officials spent the run-up to July Fourth sounding alarms over the use of fireworks in the heat. But even beyond the holiday, the trend of using colored fireworks as part of a gender reveal party led to tragedy and disaster in California only a few years ago.
Explosives at that party caused the 2020 El Dorado Fire in Southern California, which started in September, burned for 71 days, killed a firefighter, destroyed 20 structures and scorched 35½ square miles in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. A man in that case pleaded guilty to felony involuntary manslaughter and a woman pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors.
“Don’t do that at all in the summer months,” Torres said.
6. Towing boats and trailers or parking in dry grass
Towing other vehicles often results in chains dragging low and scraping the roadway, fire officials said. Those sparks are quite dangerous, especially when dry grass and vegetation surround the road.
“Another thing that’s very dangerous is when a vehicle pulls over to an area of the road that has dry vegetation,” Torres said. “The heat from the exhaust can absolutely ignite a fire.”
7. Water activities
As people flock to the water and to pools to stay cool, fire officials warned them not to be careless.
“People will put kids in pools with floaties on, and they’ll think the floaties are a substitution for a LifeVest,” Toler said. “People will put (children) in pools with LifeVests on, and they think that’s a substitute for supervision.”
Fire officials reiterated that no child should ever be alone without supervision in a pool, regardless of whether they can swim well or not. Accidents can happen in a heartbeat, they said, and drownings often happen quietly.
“Nothing is a substitute for a person with two eyes on everything that’s going on in the water,” Toler said.
Thanks to the SJ Mercury News for this information!