Related: Wildfire War Taking Toll and CDF Fire Crew Over-Run, Four Firefighters Burned
HANNAH WOLFSON
Associated Press Writer
SUNDANCE, Utah (AP) -- Kathy Hammons is ready for a wildfire.
She just put a new metal roof on her house and spent the last few weeks clearing brush between her aspen trees. The dry grass along the road is cut short and she knows exactly how long nearby hydrants can hold out.
In this summer of fire, Hammons and everyone else across the West cannot be too careful. It is the worst fire season in decades, with more than 3.7 million acres burned so far.
On Thursday, Hammons drove the narrow roads that lead to the resort's 350 homes, all tucked between dry pines and oak and that haven't burned for at least a century. In the background, smoke billows from a fire smoldering in the next canyon.
``If we're going to artificially keep fire from doing what Mother Nature wants it to do, then we have to take responsibility,'' Hammons said.
Sundance, about 45 miles outside Salt Lake City, has been cited as a model for fire protection. It makes good use of ``defensible space,'' ample room around a building for crews to safely fight off fire.
It sounds simple. But defensible space can mean giving up the things homeowners treasure -- the forest at the doorstep, with tall pines hanging over the house and a narrow, wooded driveway. For firefighters, such luxuries are deadly.
``We have several multimillion-dollar homes that are absolutely non-defensible, so that we would not even send a firefighter in there if the fire was in close,'' said Rick Lynsky, a district chief in the Park City Fire District, where new homes are springing up on the hillsides every day -- like they are across much of the West.
Lynsky said firefighters have long declared homes winners or losers on sight. In California, he said, wildfire crews have even run out ahead of the engines to mark doomed homes with bands of red tape.
Hammons, who co-chairs the North Fork Fire & Safety Advisory Council, pointed out a few winners -- and losers, with their old wood-shingled roofs, log piles on the front porch and underbrush stacked like kindling.
Her group has fought since its foundation a year ago to swing the balance. The council informs property owners what they should do to help stave off fires, from clearing empty lots to installing new roofs. The group has raised money for emergency alert systems and designed an evacuation plan if fire ever hits the narrow canyon.
There is also a statewide team formed by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and others. The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, has sent teams of fire education officers around the West, including Utah, Nevada and New Mexico.
Hammons is keeping watch on the fire nearby and another about 20 miles up the road that has burned 800 acres and forced the evacuations of 11 homes. Her bags are packed, her neighbors' cat carrier is at the ready and the escape route through the narrow canyon has been coordinated.
``We all moved in and thought, someone else will take of it,'' she said. ``Now we know better.''
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