Fire agencies recount lessons learned in year after Bofer Canyon Fire

It was one year ago that the Bofer Canyon Fire burned 5,000 acres of wildland that butts up against neighborhoods in southern Kennewick.

Five homes were lost, eight were damaged, and it's something the Kennewick Fire Department is working to prevent from happening in the future.

Captain Brian Ellis with the Kennewick Fire Department says a big part of that is about educating homeowners.

"That fire, that weather, that fuel model-- all those components to making a huge fire like that, that was the day," Ellis said. "Everything came together to make it a bad day. We're going to have bad days-- how do we minimize the loss?"

It was about 25 years earlier that a similar fire scorched 2,000 acres of land in the same area. However, Ellis says, the urban sprawl hadn't reached as far as it is today.

In June, officials contacted residents of more than 400 homes in southern Kennewick, including the Canyon Lakes and other subdivisions in the area along Bofer Canyon, to point out areas that homeowners could make their homes more defensible in the event of a future fire.

"The fuels we have are quick-burning and they're fast. They come and go. But if they leave embers in bushes around the house, that leads to a more dangerous situation for the structure. We just need to keep putting the message out there, so that residents really hear the message and take it to heart. We're focused on putting good information into people's hands so that they can make good choices. If one house makes a good choice, and the neighbor makes a good choice, and the following neighbor makes a good choice, then we have a whole block that's protected."

You can find more information on creating defensible spaces on the FEMA website.