Multiple exhibits, booths and demonstrations popped up at Saturday event designed to inspire people to safeguard their homes

Ask 8-year-old Eiger Baylog a question about defensible space, and chances are she’ll know the answer.

Here’s her summary about the basic concept: “Basically, defensible space is where you have your house, but you make sure that there’s no fuel around it that’s super close.”

Nailed it.

Best practices for defensible space was just one of many points of education attendees could glean at Sparking Action!, an event dedicated to preparing for wildfires by teaching attendees how to take steps such as clearing fuels around their property, having an escape plan and packing an emergency go bag. The second annual event, put on by the Southern Oregon Forest Restoration Collaborative, ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum, the city of Ashland and the Lomakatsi Restoration Project, ran Saturday, May 10, at ScienceWorks.

Event offerings included live fire demonstrations, activities for children and informational booths from nearly 20 area organizations such as SOFRC and Ashland Fire & Rescue.

Attendees also had the option to learn about the cultural use of fire, watch the educational film “Fire Lines,” learn about student-helmed service projects, and build a do-it-yourself air filter to take home.

”We’re doing really hands-on things,” said Amelia Liberatore, SOFRC communications officer.

Model homes, real flames

In one hands-on demonstration, dozens of participants constructed small models intended to simulate landscapes and neighborhoods. Adults and children took aluminum baking trays, filled them with sand, then installed matches, intended to mimic trees. Demonstration leaders sprinkled in some cedar wood chips, intended to represent understory fuels such as bushes. Small paper boxes represented homes. Then, lit matches sparked fires on the miniature worlds to show how the resulting flames behaved.

“We asked the families — you know, there are some very young kids doing this activity — and we asked them to make sure the home is protected,” Liberatore said. “And so, they’re lining it with water. They had a spray bottle, and they’re putting water around the house. They’re putting the trees all over to one side. So you get to see defensible space is a very important part of protecting our home and being knowledgeable and proactive about wildfire.”

Teresa Vonn, a fire risk reduction specialist with the Oregon State Fire Marshal, had a similar exhibit at her booth. She displayed a model-sized house divided into three sections displaying poor, moderate, and best setups for preparing a home for fire.

The ill-prepared section included a combustible wooden fence touching the home, for example, while the well-prepared one had a noncombustible metal fence within 5 feet of the structure.

Fire as the predator

Think “The Three Little Pigs” story, but the wolf is a fire.

“That’s the idea of this house: kind of showing worst to best examples of what we can do,” Vonn said.

Education meshed well with fun. One event booth featured a fishing game, and art stations were available inside ScienceWorks, too.

“There’s this thing where you can get samples,” Eiger said. “I went there, too. The samples there are freeze-dried, and they’re very delicious.”

Learning about fire in a community-based environment is a positive way to prepare for the real thing, Liberatore said.

It’s a key purpose Sparking Action! and similar events, said Jennifer Payne, SOFRC education program director. Proactive steps such as preparing defensible space around your home, putting a go bag together or signing up for Jackson Alerts don’t have to be scary if communities prepare together. We can adapt to fire, Payne said. It’s a cultural shift, but it can be done.

“If we can make it part of our community, part of our daily life, and something that we’re all doing together, then that is the trauma-informed approach,” Payne said. “Supporting people to be prepared psychologically, emotionally, physically.”

Email Ashland.news web editor Ryan Pfeil at ryanp@ashland.news. This story first appeared at Ashland.news.