Are You Prepared?

Photographs by Chris Jensen, Action Fire & EMS Photography, www.actionfirephoto.com

Los Angeles–It's four o'clock in the morning, you wake up to the sound of sirens, the smell of smoke, and you can hear your horses beginning to complain. Are you prepared? We asked around and got some common sense suggestions as well as found an abundance of good materials.

The Hoof Beat recently promoted participating in the LA County Equine Response Team. This is a volunteer organization that supports the LA County Department of Animal Care Control to assist with the safe evacuation of livestock during large and small-scale disasters. This raised the question, individually, what can we do to be prepared?

One of the fundamental items we are all taught from elementary school on is that one should always have a preplanned escape route from our homes in case of fire. However, as a horse owner, have you ever considered an escape route and evacuation plan for your horses? Do your family members know the evacuation plan and have you drilled it? The very minimum you should do is walk through your plan to make sure it will work.

Each home or ranch is different. You might have several different plans. For instance, stage one might be you move all the horses to another location on your property where they would be safe or ready to trailer. Stage two might be walking or trailering your horses out to a predetermined safe zone. If your property is in a canyon zone, you might prearrange with a friend to have a safe destination for temporary stabling. Where you live and how well you have landscaped your property to be safe from fire will determine your individual plan.

Make a list of all the items you will need for your evacuation plan and make sure these items are on-hand and in good repair. Use the list a couple of times a year to inventory whether these items are still on-hand and have not worn out or disappeared. For instance, every occupied stall should have a halter, lead rope and stud chain stored at the stall. If you are at work and your horses need to be evacuated, these would be indispensable to a family member or emergency services worker.

Out buildings, barns and other structures should be built with fire prevention in mind. For instance, buildings should be constructed with fire retardant materials. Every out building should have fire extinguishers and emergency lighting or a flashlight. Every tack room or barn should have an emergency kit containing basic ingredients like a flashlight and batteries, halters, lead ropes, rope, first aid kit, spare heavy duty boots, gloves, a crowbar, etc. Think of the emergency pack as a composite of what you would need for an earthquake, fire or flood.

If a trailer is part of your evacuation plan, regular safety and equipment checks should be done as well as normal maintenance. In an emergency, the simple things are sometimes overlooked so it is even more important to make sure every family member knows how hook up the trailer. How to ensure the trailer is safely secured to the trailer hitch. How to connect the trailer brakes and lights to the truck and verify they are functioning. How to check that the ramp and doors are closed and secured including the divider door inside the trailer. It is important each person who might have to do this has done it often enough under normal circumstances that they would have the confidence to do it in an emergency.

One the VHOA Equestrian Response Team members told the story of how they tried to board a horse on a trailer for twenty minutes during a real fire evacuation, but could not board the horse. The owner stated somewhat complacently, "Oh, I was wondering if you would be able to do it. We've never been able to get that horse to board a trailer." If your horse might need to be evacuated, get the horse trained to board a trailer or you might be in for a long walk.

Keep tools for fire protection at hand in barns or out buildings as well as at your home. For instance, some of the common items are a 100 foot garden hose, shovel, rake, ladder and buckets.

License, tag and/or chip your horse. This assists in identifying equestrian communities for emergency services and in identifying your livestock after an evacuation.

Ensure that your ranch, home and horsekeeping facilities are landscaped to protect buildings and livestock from fire. Visit the Los Angeles Fire Department (www.lafd.org) and FEMA (www.usfa.fema.gov) websites for detailed articles how to protect your home and facilities.

Use landscaping to defend your property. Trim grass on a regular basis up to 100 feet surrounding home and out buildings. Create a defensible space by thinning trees and brush within 30 feet around your home. Beyond 30 feet, remove dead wood, debris and low tree branches. Ensure that emergency vehicles can easily access your property through roads and driveways at least 12 feet wide with adequate turnaround space.

The Los Angeles Fire Department has identified the following as hazardous native species and photos are available on their website: chamise (greasewood), manzanita, California sagebrush, mule fat, hoary leaf ceanothus, big pod ceanothus, mountain mahogany, spanish broom, California buckwheat, southern honeysuckle, tree tobacco, holly leaf redberry, poison oak, sugar bush, California scrub oak, and sage.

The City of Los Angeles requires that native brush, grass and weeds be cut to a maximum height of 3 inches within 200 feet of any structure. Leaving the 3-inch stubble and the root structure in the ground protects against soil erosion. Within 100 feet of structures, single trees, landscape shrubbery and cultivated ground covers are allowed, provided they are maintained in such a manner that they do not provide a "fuel bridge" from areas of native vegetation to structures.

Photography used in this article graciously provided by award winning photographer Chris Jensen, an action fire and EMS photographer from Los Angeles. Chris Jensen's work can be seen on his website www.actionfirephoto.com. Photographs are the property of Chris Jensen copyright (c) 2003 and used with his permission.