EAGLE POINT, Ore. – When wildfires threaten rural homes, most people hope firefighters will save them. Carol Mercer isn\u2019t most people.<\/p>\n
The 79-year-old ranch owner near Highway 140 just spent roughly $3,500 building fire breaks around her 140 acre property. She paid out of pocket for a local and his Bobcat Tractor to clear perimeter roads and cut paths through the land to stop flames from spreading.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne stupid flick of a cigarette\u2026millions of dollars gone,\u201d Mercer said. \u201cI\u2019m not gonna waste a good worry and not act on it if I can fix it. And I fixed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mercer says she\u2019s made fire preparations for years using her own tractor but this season, she couldn\u2019t get to it in time. Rather than wait and hope, she sold a treasured side saddle to cover the cost of hiring help.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a small investment for a big one,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The fire breaks form a series of concentric circles across her land, creating space for firefighters to drive, turn around and defend the area if flames ever come through.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you only do the perimeter, then the inside can burn hot and fast,\u201d she explained. \u201cSo we did both.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Mercer hopes others will follow her lead. She says she can\u2019t see another ranch in her area with any visible fire breaks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if next year, the Rogue Valley became known as the Fire Barrier County of Oregon?\u201d she asked. \u201cYou just have to get off your rear end and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
With fire restrictions already in effect and hot, dry conditions expected to continue, Mercer says the time for preparation is before fire season, not after.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorrying about it doesn\u2019t get it done. Hoping about it doesn\u2019t get it done. Starting is what gets it done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EAGLE POINT, Ore. – When wildfires threaten rural homes, most people hope firefighters will save them. Carol Mercer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[23],"tags":[2697,746,5025,26924,4216,26926,23754,26925,159,67,132,68,11003,5609],"class_list":["post-31971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-disasters","tag-environment","tag-fire","tag-firebreak","tag-fires","tag-hazards","tag-natural-disasters","tag-natural-hazards","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wildfire","tag-wildfires"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114782381346464615","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}