[Joey]

First time King County has really focused on planning for wildland fires. Among other things, the county is going to implement a ready-set-go evacuation system. I have great interest in this since I live in the urban-wildland interface and have followed major wildland fires for about the last 10 years. We live on a small acreage parcel and I have an ongoing project working on fuel reduction and limbing up our trees. Also just today I obtained a key to the local 'fire gate' so if our neighborhood needs to bug out in that direction I can now open the gate. https://your.kingcounty.gov/dnrp/climate/documents/king-county-wildfire-strategy-report.pdf

[treeswarper]

I see lectures on having evacuation routes, but they seem to ignore one option and that is having a safety zone to fall back on if roads are plugged or blocked and your home is not good to stay in. A safety zone is a large clearing where the fire will burn around and not through. My best one is East Omak Park, where the Stampede arena is. It is quite large and fire safe. It is within walking or biking distance. Parking lots have been used in some cases. Just something for folks to ponder.

[Joey]

"Safety zones" are part of the community planning process. P.38 There is no definition of "community" so not sure how large of an area that will be. We live in the unincorporated area in Fire District 34 which contracts with the city of Redmond for fire and aid. Today I spoke with a planner for Redmond fire so I can get plugged into the community planning process once it kicks off. This planner is a new hire from California and has a ton a fire related experience.