Why aren’t homes in wildfire prone areas protected by a sprinkler system?

2.09K views

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?

In: 83

35 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Sprinkler systems do exist and are used sometimes in wildfire prone areas. The thing is, if the actual wildfire front reaches your property, sprinklers wont cut it.

* The radiant heat is incredibly powerful and will melt/burn things, even with sprinklers
* You need a lot of water and be able to run pressure pumps for a long time to cover the danger period
* Power lines will most likely be affected so you wont have electric pumps
* Oxygen will get used up so petrol generators tend to die

Generally, the the sprinkler systems are only useful against the embers that travel ahead of the fire front. A big part of how they work is by keeping your gutters wet, because dry gutters full of dry leaves are a common spot for fires to start.

I live in a wildfire prone area and have some basic roof sprinklers. Once again, it’s just to keep the gutters wet against embers, not to stop the main fire. I’ll have evacuated well before that happens.

You are viewing 1 out of 35 answers, click here to view all answers.