California Wildfire Pool

[thomearl]

So I live in Altadena CA. You may have heard of a “little” wildfire we had last week, and it’s still going. Only saw it briefly, but my pool looks something like the water in the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I’m assuming it’s got a ton of ash, debris, toxic materials and God knows what else in it. Water has not been circulating for more than a week and most likely it’ll be another week before I can check it out. Anyone have first hand experience with dealing with pool water after a large fire? Does it need to be drained and start over or something even more involved? Luckily we still have house, though it won’t be livable for months most likely.

 

[JJ_Tex]

Sorry to hear, but glad the house and important things are okay. I would assume you would tackle your pool the same way you would handle any other pool impacted by a flood, hurricane or just generally abandoned.

1. Remove the large debris from the pool with a net. Scoop and scoop and scoop until you stop getting net fulls of crud. Note that you will likely be blindly scooping if the water is black.
2. Decide if you should SLAM or drain and refill. Most of the time SLAM is the way to go, but if water is cheap and you can drain and refill without hitting your pocketbook too much and without risk of damaging your pool that may be a good option.
3. Turn on the pool and start the SLAM process. Keep at it for days/weeks until you pass the criteria to end the SLAM: SLAM - Shock Level and Maintain

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

I've been dealing with this for the past week since the major wind storm. Just about everything from my yard and my neighbors' property ended up in the pool. There was about 6 in of debris covering the bottom of the pool. As JJ mentioned, I used a leaf rake to blindly clear most of the debris. There's no need to run the pump until you clear most of the silt and large debris. I filled up about 10 trash cans full of debris from the pool. After clearing most of the large debris, I used a Venturi Leaf bagger attached to a garden hose to clear out most of the smaller debris. This tool is really a lifesaver as sucks up and captures most of the smaller debris.

This then allowed me to start the pump to begin clearing the silt. Keep stirring it up and getting it into suspension. Keep an eye on filter pressure and backwash or clean the filter when pressure rises by about 25%. I broke down and cleaned my DE cartridges three times before completing the slam process.

I know it seems insurmountable, but you'll get through it. No reason to drain unless you have other reasons to do so.