Prepping for wildfire hazards

Summer and fall are peak fire season. Recent fires in­clude the Nixon Fire in Riv­erside County, along with the Park Fire in Northern Califor­nia. And most of us remember the Cedar, Witch, Cocos, Gue­jito, Rice and Lilac fires that devastated much of the county. Fortunately, important lessons have been learned.

We now have better coordi­nation among local, state and tribal fire-fighting agencies. SB 816, a bill I strongly supported, allows state and tribal mutual aid agreements. Last year, the Pala Tribe, the bill’s sponsor, joined with the Office of Emer­gency Services (Cal OES) to create the first state partner­ship with a tribal fire depart­ment in California.

Cal Fire’s aviation program deals with thousands of wild­fires every year. Their fleet of fixed wing and rotary aircraft is the largest civil aerial fire­fighting fleet in the world; even the most remote fire in the State Responsibility Zone can be reached in about 20 min­utes.

San Diego Gas & Electric maintains over 190 weather stations that monitor high fire risk areas, generating model­ing forecasts that anticipate the potential path of fires. This data is shared with fire county fire agencies and is also used to shut down circuits to prevent fires resulting from downed power lines. More information is available here. And since the 90s when the Regional Com­munications System (RCS) was implemented, all public safety agencies in San Diego County easily communicate on a com­mon frequency band.

Lots of information is avail­able at Alert San Diego, where homeowners can also register to receive emergency alerts. Another great source of infor­mation are the County’s Fire Safe Councils — please click here. Still more information is available from Cal Fire at: Ready for Wildfire

We’re better prepared now, but we’re still just a spark away from disaster. As always, we need to plan and be prepared.

An electronic version of this article is available at: https:// ad75.asmrc.org/

Assemblymember Marie Waldron, R- Valley Center, represents the 75th Assembly District in the Cali­fornia Legislature, which includes most of rural eastern and northern San Diego County.