Living on the edge: Here are some common activities that people do in the heat that create fire danger

At 10 a.m. Thursday, the recorded temperature in Livermore — always one of the hottest spots in the Bay Area — already was 87 degrees. So anyone with thoughts of doing landscaping in that community had bad news coming, according to fire officials.

They were already too late.

“Anytime you’re dealing with temperatures that warm that early in the day, you know it’s not the day to do any of that,” Cal Fire spokesperson Battalion Chief Jesse Torres said. “If it’s 80 at 10 a.m., it’s already too warm to do it safely.”

So it goes during extreme heat, fire officials said. Temperatures move up, and the people keep moving — staying in routines, creating new ones and often times doing things that are “extremely dangerous” and that potentially could change their lives, Torres said. That point was driven home earlier this week with Cal Fire’s announcement that two people were arrested on suspicion of using lawn equipment improperly and at an improper time, resulting in two Northern California wildfires.

Fire officials discussed several things that people do in the heat that can take them to the edge — and occasionally over it — of disaster. Here are the most common:

Landscape Trimming

Lawnmowers, weed trimmers and hedge clippers all can create sparks that can land on dry grass and ignite it. The general rule of thumb, according to fire officials, is that as the temperature goes up and the relative humidity heads down, even dead grass on a lawn can turn into kindling.

“If you have to do something on a hot day like (Thursday), you have to be out there as early in the morning as possible,” Torres said. “But even in some cases, it doesn’t cool off a lot at night, so even real early in the morning is not the safest. Take the day off from it.”

Fire officials said lawns should be trimmed when they are more damp with dew and that any high vegetation should be eliminated to give a property defensible space.

Barbecuing

Fire officials said people tend to equate really hot days as really good days to get the grill out in the evening. It’s not a good idea, especially if people are not around to keep an eye on it.

“Embers can fly and float,” Contra Costa Fire Protection District spokesperson Capt. Chris Toler said. “A typical barbecue might have a vent. Some people use smokers. Both of those can spit embers and not necessarily small ones. It’s best to barbecue with a group anyway. If you don’t, it’s best to move your activity — music, socializing, whatever — outdoors near the grill.”

Welding

Torres said “we come across often” people who build stuff on their properties and use a welder to do it.

“People don’t think,” Torres said. “But again, flying sparks.”

Torres said that if a person has to weld on a hot day, they should make sure they are near a water source such as a hose and have a phone handy to call 911.

Hiking

The onset of a heat wave is not the time to start a new exercise program, fire officials said. To start that program with a hike up one of the many Bay Area hills or mountains is an even worse idea, they said.

“People equate the hot weather with, ‘Now this is the best time to start losing weight,'” Toler said. “Inevitably, that can end very badly. And where that comes into fire safety danger is that if we have a hiker who’s injured, ill or missing, we have to devote a lot of our resources to that person, when we may need them elsewhere.”

Gender Reveal Party

Fire officials said most people probably don’t remember that a gender reveal party caused the 2020 El Dorado Fire in Southern California. That wildfire burned for 71 days, killed a firefighter, destroyed 20 structures and scorched 35½ square miles in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. A man in that case pleaded guilty to felony involuntary manslaughter and a woman pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors.

“Don’t do that at all in the summer months,” Torres said.

Towing boats and trailers

Towing other vehicles often can lead to chains dragging low and scraping the roadway, fire officials said. Those sparks are quite dangerous, especially when dry grass and vegetation surrounds the road.

“Another thing that’s very dangerous is when a vehicle pulls over to an area of the road that has dry vegetation,” Torres said. “The heat from the exhaust can absolutely ignite a fire.”

Water activities

As people flock to the water and to pools to stay cool, fire officials warned them not to be careless.

“People will put kids in pools with floaties on, and they’ll think the floaties are a substitution for a LifeVest,” Toler said. “People will put them in pools with LifeVest’s on, and they think that’s a substitute for supervision.”

Fire officials re-iterated that no child ever should be alone without supervision in a pool, regardless of whether they can swim well or not. Accidents can happen in a heartbeat, they said, and drownings often happen quietly.

“Nothing is a substitute for a person with two eyes on everything that’s going on in the water,” Toler said.