Bonnie Cobb moved to the Four Mounds area in 1959 when she was 2 years old. She's lived there ever since. Her house is a half-hour drive from Spokane, at the end of a gravel road in a wooded area with a breathtaking view of a canyon cut by the Spokane River.
In 1991, Cobb watched that canyon fill with fire.
She was there with her two children. Together they watched the fire jump out of the canyon and roar over the house, taking out the smaller buildings on the property and leveling dozens of trees. It was Cobb's first real exposure to wildfire. She and her children were safe, but the near miss opened her eyes to the threat.
"It woke me up to the fact of how dangerous fire can be," Cobb says.
Three decades later, Cobb is standing in front of her house with Hilary Franz, the Washington state commissioner of public lands. They're there to talk about the Department of Natural Resource's new Wildfire Ready Neighbors program, which debuted as a pilot last year and is now rolling out in full force in vulnerable counties across the state.
The program's basic premise is this: If you live in a high-risk part of Spokane County, you can go to wildfirereadyneighbors.com and request a consultation with an expert who will visit your home — free of charge — to help create a wildfire protection plan that works for your property, budget and lifestyle needs.
The goal is to help people create defensible space — an area free of flammable materials that extends about 100 feet from their home. The thing about wildfire is that it spreads really, really fast. A spark can easily fly from a tree to a decorative shrub to a wooden porch to a person's home. Creating defensible spaces means clearing gutters, trimming or removing trees and getting rid of anything that could carry a spark.
Cobb is the fire commissioner for Spokane County Fire District Five around Nine Mile Falls. She regularly meets with residents to talk about the importance of defensible space. Community members are key to the Wildfire Ready Neighbors program, Franz says. While a homeowner might balk at a government worker like Franz showing up at their door with unsolicited advice, a neighbor like Cobb is much more likely to be persuasive.
But for some residents, the main impediment to creating defensible space isn't trust — it's money.
"We're a bit of a low-income area," Cobb says. "So a lot of residents, when you ask them to spend $5,000 to get rock [lawns] or get fuel reduction, they're like, 'Oh, probably not.'"
Cobb says she's seeking a grant that would support wildfire reduction projects for 50 homes — about a quarter of a percent of the homes in the district. There are additional grants homeowners can apply for through the state.
Along with money, Cobb says homeowners sometimes hesitate to create defensible space for aesthetic reasons. She says people often tell her they moved to the area because of the trees, why would they cut them down? They want natural beauty, not a direct sightline to their neighbor's house.
Cobb tries to help address those hesitations through education: A homeowner might not want to remove their trees, but sometimes just trimming them or removing the ones within 3 feet of their home is enough to make a big difference.
In many ways wildfire is like COVID-19, Franz says. She compares 100 feet of defensible space to the 6 feet of social distancing that people learned during the pandemic. Like COVID-19, wildfire requires community action. If only one person gets vaccinated and wears a mask, it won't do much to stop the virus. Similarly, clearing fuel sources from your property offers some protection, but if your neighbor has piles of dry leaves stacked up next to their wooden patio furniture, that's your problem, too.
"Wildfires don't see property lines, and people with homes in areas at high risk of wildfires are only as strong as their weakest link," Franz says.
Wildfire Ready Neighbors launched as a pilot program in Spokane County last year. They had 651 people sign up for home assessments, exceeding their goal by 22%. This year, they're expanding the program to include new counties like Yakima. To help incentivize people, Franz suggests approaching the new initiative with a bit of friendly competition.
"I would see this as a game: 'Who's gonna make their communities the most resilient to wildfire?'" Franz says. "Honestly, we all become winners when we do that."
The need for defensible space has become more urgent as wildfires across the West increase in scale and devastation. Last year was Washington's second-worst wildfire season on record. Fueled by historic drought, 18,175 fires burned more than 600,000 acres of land. Hazardous levels of smoke filled the skies. Thousands were forced to evacuate their homes.
The Inlander asks Franz how she's feeling about the upcoming fire season.
"Hopeful and optimistic," Franz says.
Nothing is certain yet, but there's reason to think things won't be as bad this year. For starters, it's been a wet spring. Last year, Washington saw an unprecedented 220 fires in the month of April. There were only 46 fires in April this year. That doesn't necessarily mean things won't get worse this summer, but it does mean fire crews will be less exhausted when the more intense fires start this summer.
"It means that we have a little bit more time to sort of get everything in line, catch our breath," Franz says.
There's also the money. House Bill 1168, which passed unanimously and went into effect last July, allocates $125 million every two years to support wildfire response, forest restoration and community resilience efforts like the Wildfire Ready Neighbors Program.
But more resources and a wet spring don't necessarily mean Washington is in the clear. Heavy rain helps grass grow, and a week or two of dry weather is all it takes to turn it into what is basically gasoline, Franz says. Trimming grass near your home is a key part of creating defensible space.
And even with the additional funding from HB 1168, the DNR isn't immune to the challenges that have gripped the rest of the workforce in recent years. While firefighter wages vary by district, Franz says they're typically not as high as they should be, which has made it increasingly difficult to recruit people.
"We have, right now, fewer people who are wanting to go into this work," Franz says. "It's not for the faint of heart; it is very challenging work. Also, unfortunately, the pay is not really commensurate with the level of the job challenge."
The housing crisis has also made recruitment difficult. Housing costs in Washington's rural communities have skyrocketed in recent years and driven out people who might otherwise be involved in firefighting efforts. Franz says the DNR is looking at the possibility of building housing for their temporary and long-term firefighting workforce.
After taking questions from the press, Franz and Cobb are joined by wildland and forest health specialist Garrett Walters to walk around Cobb's property and demonstrate a mock wildfire readiness assessment. Franz — who has hinted at a run for governor — picks up Cobb's adorable 3-year-old grandson and carries him with her for the tour.
Cobb's home is better protected than most. She has a metal roof, well-trimmed grass and a concrete patio. Her deck furniture is metal and the few trees on her property are well-trimmed to prevent them from catching sparks. The house itself is made of wood, but that's OK, Walters says, because the defensible space she's created should prevent flames from getting close enough to ignite it.
"But what if I have stacks of firewood so it's easier for me to carry it into the house?" Cobb jokes.
Walters laughs: "I understand the ease of having a firewood pile right next to your structure, but I highly recommend you have that wood pile away from the structure."
With summer approaching rapidly, Cobb says she plans to keep reaching out to community members and educating them on the importance of defensible space. She's confident in the power of community resilience to spread faster than wildfire.
"Once you get one neighbor doing it, then pretty soon the next neighbor starts doing it," Cobb says. "It's just kind of a domino effect." ♦
