Worst-case scenario focus of ‘Last Chance Wildfire’ event
Workshop on Jan. 27 to give residents tools to survive using realistic simulations
What if?
That’s the question so many asked the day of
Feb. 6, 2015, when the Eastern Sierra’s first, largescale-property-destroying fire tore through the community of Swall Meadows and Paradise during a winter night of extreme wind and fire and rain, burning 40 homes to the ground in a matter of hours and leaving Swall Meadows and those who lived through the Round Fire forever changed.
What if? That’s the question so many asked on the day of Nov. 20, 2020, when, only five years later, the most destructive wildfire in Eastern Sierra history, the Mountain View Fire, tore through the communities of Walker and the Antelope Valley on cold, winter day of wild wind and fire, burning 80 homes and buildings to the ground and killing one resident, leaving both communities and the those who lived through
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“every time i paint a portrait i lose a friend.”
–
INDEX
John Singer Sargent the fire forever changed.
For anyone who has lived through a fire like the Round Fire and the Mountain View Fire, the loss of home and property and life was, and in many cases still is, devastating.
For everyone else, the fact that both of the Eastern Sierra’s most destructive wildfires occurred within the past nine years is a wake-up call as wildfires grow larger, more destructive and dangerous every year.
That’s why a group of local and regional fire and emergency responders, including the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department, the Bishop and California Desert District office of the Bureau of Land Management, CalFire, the U.S Forest Service Inyo National Forest and more, are going to be in Bishop on Jan. 27 for an all-day workshop with their gear and expertise.
emergency simulations
During the workshop, these experts will use both class-based training and life-like wildfire simulations that will mimic the kinds of conditions decision-making scenarios that residents could find themselves in, even if up to that point, they “did everything right.”
“What we want to do is give civilians the best chance of surviving if they are too late to evacuate,” said Rex Hambly, one of the founders of the “Last change Survival Simulation Workshop,” (go to https:// firesafecounty.org/workshops/ for more information) which has now been used in various trainings around the state and county.
Hambly, a Bureau of Land Management wildland fire captain, division supervisor, burn boss and strike team leader, has more than two decades of experience in fighting fire. Hambly, along with San Diego Fire Safe Council member Brittany Muñoz and other experts, including military and state/ national emergency responders, created the course because, Hambly said, too little emphasis has been put on training civilians on what to do when it is already too late to evacuate.
“We are hoping that exposing people to some of the realistic simulations we will be doing will give residents a visual and mental ‘set of slides’ they carry in their heads so when/if the worst case event happens, they can move faster and take lifesaving actions instead of spending precious time trying to even start to comprehend the danger they are in,” he said. “Our goal is to give residents the tools to increase survivability and maintain the capacity to maneuver.”
He said one of the goals of the event is to teach people to recognize the situation as quickly as possible and make a decision, versus trying to analyze something they have never experienced and then make decisions.
“We call this ‘recognition-based decision making’ versus ‘analytical decision making’ and decades of research shows that this is how we make split second decisions,” he said.
The workshop will be held at the Eastern Sierra Tri-County Fairgrounds from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The workshop is free and snacks and lunch will be provided.
The workshop will be
available via Microsoft Teams for those who cannot attend in person, although the real-life simulations will not always be recorded.
All residents, including the Eastern Sierra’s Fire Safe Councils and those working to become Firewise Communities across Inyo and Mono counties are invited. Families and neighbors are invited to attend together (pre-registration is requested; follow this link https://forms.office. com/g/2VAHnipRhK or go to the end of this article for contact information).
The workshop Hambly said the Last Chance workshop format that will be used on Jan. 27 was developed by the Bureau of Land Management and the San Diego Fire Safe Council, with help from many experts and the input from numerous of interviews of real people trapped or caught in reallife wildfires. After years of work, the Last Chance workshops were created.
In the current case, a local BLM wildland firefighter and fire mitigation official in the Bishop office, Angel Avila, took the workshop in San
Diego last year and decided it was so effective, he wanted to bring it to the Eastern Sierra.
“It is my hope that we can expand the reach of the workshop into more parts of the Eastern Sierra following this first event,” he said.
What will the workshop be like?
“The all-day workshop is intended to address the urgent need for enhanced wildfire preparedness and evacuation training, offering a unique blend of theoretical knowledge and practical application,” according to a recent news release from the
Last Chance team. “The morning session, filled with engaging modules, will be followed by handson simulations and visits to possible ‘Temporary Refuge Areas’ in the afternoon.”
The workshop will cover these topics:
• Case Studies and Fire Behavior: Analyzing real incidents and understanding local fire history.
• Survival Site
Selection: Identifying characteristics of temporary refuge areas based on terrain and case studies.
• Thinking Like a Firefighter: Developing a mindset for elective decision-making during emergencies.
• Family-Level Preparedness: Strategies to fortify households against wildfire threats.
• Evacuation Process: Recognizing alerts, understanding orders, and utilizing information sources.
• Psychology of Survival: Addressing the mental and emotional aspects of crisis management.
• Accessing Survival Areas: Navigating challenges to access survival zones.
This workshop also marks the initiation of a new, regional, collaborative “Fire Adapted Communities” program, sponsored by the InyoMono Resource Conservation District and supported by Inyo and Mono counties.
The workshop is hosted by the Eastern Sierra Wildfire Alliance in partnership with the Resource Conservation District and Fire Safe Council of Greater San Diego County.
Funding for this project was provided in part by a grant from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as part of the California Climate Investments Program, through the California Fire Safe Council, and in part through funding provided by the Inyo-Mono
Resource Conservation District. Special recognition is given to the workshop’s originators, the Bureau of Land Management and Fire Safe Council of Greater San Diego.
How to participate
• The Last Chance Survival Simulation Workshop is free for residents. Pre-registration is requested by following this link https://forms. office. com/g/2VAHnipRhK
• If you have questions or are having trouble registering or want to attend without registering, contact Inyo County Wildfire Preparedness Coordinator Kristen Pfeiler at kristen. pfeiler@inyocounty.us or call her at 760-878-8444 OR contact Mono County Wildfire Mitigation Coordinator Wendilyn Grasseschi at wgrasseschi@mono.ca.gov or call her at 970-509-0126..