Quote Originally Posted by realist View Post
Living in wildfire country this year has really hit home. We are not far from the Lake County fires. After looking at them critically so many people all they could do is grab and go. One of the houses which made it through was an all concrete home. Although this would be the way to go I can't get a concrete truck to my location due to a 60 ft bridge which would not handle the weight. So plan "B" for my property is to put in a root cellar.......okay it will be bigger than a normal root cellar............the wife would roll her eyes if I said the B word. I figure I could get in a small Conex box and bury it. This would make it fireproof and so long as the entrance was properly protected we could get in it to ride out the fire. Obviously evacuation would be best but we have a one way in one way out road so if a fire cut it we would be screwed. So I am looking at a place of safe refuge too as well as storage of our things.

Thanks for the tips on the fire extinguishers, it was something I had not thought about.

You are so right about the PPE.....
I'm no builder, but I have a thought.

Cinder blocks and dry cement mix. Bring them in and mix up batches on site.

Did Cali do away with their stupid no-underbrush-clearing laws in the face of all these wildfires, or are they still far more concerned about preserving field mouse habitat? I mind some years back some poor schmuck got fined $5k for clearing all the brush around his place, and his was one of the few places still intact in the face of a wildfire.

That one way in/out thing... is that a matter of geography, or is there, if you needed to do it, an unpaved or cross-country way out?