Is there anything stopping me from an engineering standpoint installing a water tower on my property and making sprinklers around a radius of my home to drench the area in case of wildfire?
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I’m pretty sure a lot of properties do that.
However, I don’t think it’s always successful unfortunately, it’s going to depend on the ferocity of the fire, length of time it’s threatening the property, wind and type of fuel that’s burning. I believe I’ve seen cases where it has worked, but wildfires can be incredibly intense.
Probably the amount of water you are going to realistically need to keep the fire from encroaching. That is going to be a big water tower depending on how big your property is.
Partially because water just isn’t that good of a fire prevention material, especially in comparison to its mass or accessibility.
Sure, it will absorb a bunch of heat and create steam that drives a bunch of O2 away (which are 2 of the 3 corners of a growing fire), but the amount of heat it absorbs is limited and the moment it becomes steam it leaves and stops helping.
Most wildfire prevention strategies are to ‘attack’ the third corner: clearing out easy to reach fuel. Even in situations where water *might* be used, it’s usually replaced by a water-carrying gel that prevents it from becoming steam as quickly.
My house has sprinklers on the roof for what I assume is fire protection. I live in a pretty heavily wooded area so I don’t think it would do much, but they are there.
There is no engineering reason you can’t do that. There might be building codes, or just the cost, that would stop you from building a water tower on your property. You are going to want to water the house as well as the area around as flying embers and radiant heat are both problems.
It might be cheaper to build your house with fire-resistant roofing and siding, and have fire-resistant shutters for the windows. As mentioned, no system is likely to guarantee your house won’t burn — at least not at a price you want to pay. The thing would be to get the most protection for your money.
Basically wildfires burn so hot and are so massive and so powerful that the amount of water it would actually take to do anything that this is basically just…impossible.
The amount of water it would take is just sooo much. That even ignoring the cost of doing that you would end up with a property that has so much water damage that it basically worthless.
It’s better to just not spend money doing that and just let it burn, or do do a lot of other cheaper things. Like creating firebreaks.
Real world sprinkler systems really only work because they are able to activate as soon as a fire starts, and stop it before it can start to spread. But with a wildfire it’s too late for that.
There are whole-home fire retardant systems (using Phos-Check or similar), but they are of course quite expensive, and still are not guaranteed to work. Fire weather can be insane, and if a large chunk of burning tree gets blown into your house…
The reason it isn’t generally done for residential buildings is that it isn’t the most cost-effective way to protect a building.
Things like a green zone, fire-resistant cladding, and firebreaks are cheaper and more effective. The general idea is that a fire won’t go where it doesn’t have fuel, so you take away the fuel in the area around your home. That makes the fire pass right around you.
Two reasons,
one fire area is in drought areas there is not enough water to allow every house to have firehouses. Second Forrest fires are so crazy hot and big that water is not all that effective.
There’s no reason you *couldn’t* do this, but it would be very expensive to implement, and even more expensive to run.
It would be very similar to [ire sprinklers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_sprinkler), which are primarily used in commercial buildings, and require significant maintenance, and all piping must be inspected annually, which is not required on residential systems. Also, this is a lot of water you’re going to need.
I would guess that automatic wildfires suppression systems would significantly increase the cost of construction on your home, and would have a high ongoing cost in maintenance.
Also, the system in place for wildfire prevention is to keep your property clear of dead vegetation (if you’re in the US, this is likely required by law), and to have a defensible area (an area clear of vegetation) around your home. This minimizes the likelihood of your home catching fire, and significantly reduces the likelihood of the fire spreading.
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