Wildfire vs Tractor - California Homeowner Prevents Total Loss with Ventrac
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ย. 2020
- www.ventrac.com/
From Gary Hensley’s California ranch, you can see beautiful views of Sacramento and Napa Valley.
Hills and 5 acres of grass surround his home, and while he likes the challenges of figuring out how to manage this type of property, with all its beauty, comes risk.
Summers are dry, and winds are strong in California, making this year’s wildfires stronger than ever. And Gary had the third-largest wildfire in recorded state history knocking on his doorstep.
Gary says wildfires are something you have to prepare for but never think will happen.
He and most homeowners in California have learned how to create defensible space around their homes and buildings to protect it in the event of a wildfire. This means reducing the amount of combustible material surrounding the house and in its place using fire-resistant materials like concrete, swimming pools, cement board, and more.
He’s very glad he prepared for this fire pro-actively with his Ventrac.
This is the first year he has been able to mow 100% of his property because of his Ventrac 4500’s slope capabilities. Doing things like mowing the grass surrounding the property reduces fuel for the fires and keeps their flames more manageable.
The fires, which were all started by lightning strikes in the area, quickly spread to be 50-60 miles wide, and Gary’s small neighborhood prepared to evacuate.
He believes that his ability to mow all of his land helped establish defensible space around his home and kept the fire from burning too hot. Where the Hensley’s property did burn, it was at a much lower intensity and much lower height.
They feel humbled and blessed to have their home remain untouched from the flames. Aside from the perimeter fencing, the damage was minimal, and Gary is hopeful that the grass will reseed and grow back in the spring.
Going forward, Gary will continue to maintain his property with meticulous care.
He wants to help out his neighbors, who don’t have the means to maintain their property as well.
And thirdly, he would like to look at how the Ventrac Power Rake can help create a firebreak by taking the grass down to the dirt level.
Ventrac provided the right tool to help manage the fire and clearance needed to establish defensible space around his home. And Gary has hope going forward that being proactive about fire abatement with his Ventrac will keep the fire’s damage at a minimum again.
Products featured in this video:
VENTRAC 4500: www.ventrac.com/products/trac...
HE482 POWER BUCKET: www.ventrac.com/products/atta...
TOUGH CUT: www.ventrac.com/products/atta...
KP540 POWER RAKE: www.ventrac.com/products/atta...
For more information, visit www.ventrac.com/
Find a dealer near you! www.ventrac.com/dealers
Get a FREE catalog! www.ventrac.com/contact/catalog
Subscribe here! / @ventrac
Connect with Us!
Facebook - / ventrac
Instagram - @ventrac_tractors
Twitter - @ventrac
Put in strategic firebreaks but call them bike trails. People love bike trails.
As he talks about mowing and reducing the available fuel to a short layer on the ground to reduce fire height and intensity this is exactly what good forest management includes. Taking the available fuel and reducing it down.
Keeping grass low is certainly key, but building fire breaks is what stops the advance.
You call five acres a ranch, we call that here in Kansas a good grain bin location
Goats. Your best friend in hilly terrain and ravines. Nice machine, looks fun.
It’s all about combustible fuels. Good work. This is exactly why we need to thin our forests as well as grasses and brush.
This may be only an advertisement but it touched my heart. Thank God there are companies with the foresight to make things at an affordable price to help people prevent losing what's most precious to them. Hats off to Ventrac!
With the help of the Ventrac system your due diligence to maintain the property has save you a lot of grief, memories, and possibly others from a much worse condition by slowing down the spread of the fire the way it did. You will be amazed how the grass should come back to life with a renewed vigor.
So using logic and common sense your saying the fires are not because of global warming but because of the lack of prescribed burns and underbrush management. Makes perfect sense thanks!
All the roots from the grass are still there in the ground, the grass will come back with a vengeance.
Oh so you mean land/ forest management is a good thing....
"Great is thy faithfulness". Lovely hymn instrumental in the start. Turn to God, America.
Nice video. Nice prep prior to the fire. It's to bad that over ½ of the people with negative comments have no idea about California weather, growing conditions or local regulations. Thank you for a good video that reported your situation well.
Proactive forest management is the answer, if only people would listen.
The cinematography in this video is incredible, great vid guys
I applaud you for your determination and foresight. I hope now the the rest of California people and government have learned about fire breaks and planned logging. People like you are an example to all. Super add and initiative. Tom
This guy is truly a gem. You can obviously tell that he has pride in what he has. No matter how many acres he has, he's proud of what he has worked all of his life for. It's his & he educated himself on how to prevent devastation in the future on his land. He can now take his knowledge and educate his friends, family & neighbors on how to prevent fires & losing everything these people have. He took it into his own hands to solve the problems. Not wait for the state of CA or the government to hopefully, maybe one day that they'll come up with a plan. Which we all know will never happen! This guy needs to be protected at all costs bc the future generations don't look to promising. They all have cell phones up their asses & are oblivious to what's going on in the world.
I have always believed that wildfire management is controlling the growth in wooded and grass field areas. Ventrac is a great solution for this work. Thank God for Ventrac.
A great testimony to Ventrac! The quality if this production is top notch. Thank you.