Report details highs, lows of PID’s actions after fire
>> The Paradise Irrigation District board of directors on Wednesday night unanimously accepted an after-action report from Constant Associates related to the district’s response to the Camp Fire. The report pointed out four areas of significant strengths and four areas that were in need of significant improvement.
In addition to pointing out the strengths and weaknesses, the report laid out recommendations that District Manager Tom Lando says the staff will now look to implement.
In pointing out the strengths, the report noted that PID’s staff was able to recognize the fire’s severity and leadership prioritized employees’ needs to evacuate themselves and their families. After the fire, it collaborated with the town of Paradise to present a unified voice when lobbying for funding assistance.
The report also found that the district’s pre- existing connections with the community facilitated trust and communication. And that PID staff worked supportively as a team to respond to the fire and recovery services.
But the report also noted that the district did not have a clear leadership, and a defined chain of command were lacking during the immediate response. Constant Associate’s Susie Schmidt told the board they emphasized immediate response because that changed over time.
The report found that key district high-level management was initially unavailable and subsequently left PID but noted that the “midlevel department managers stepped up to take on additional roles and responsibilities to ensure that gaps in recovery did not derail efforts by the district to restore service in the wake of the fire.”
In fact, the report found that on the morning of the fire, then-District Manager Ed Fortner, Jr. was unavailable. It also found there did not appear to be an established succession plan — there was no person designated to approve and finalize decisions.
The report stated that while department leads successfully made necessary decisions, there was some confusion and miscommunication. That led to silos because each department was directing personnel independently with other departments unaware of what others were doing on occasion.
Because there was not a standardized approach to command, control and coordination “within PID nor how its structure fit with other response agencies, PID did not have a presence in the town of Paradise (emergency operations center) until three or four days into the incident,” the report said.
The report also said that they improvised and solved rapidly and made the necessary decisions to a successful response.
The report also found that In some cases, staff assistance offered by PID leadership did not align with support most greatly desired by staff.
PID’s pre- existing response plans were not flexible enough for the devastating and widespread scale of the event nor did it have the breadth of mutual aid agreements in place to meet the complex challenges caused by the Camp Fire.
Among the report’s recommendations are:
• To develop a continuity of operations plan as either a separate document or an annex to the Emergency Response Plan.
• Convene a planning team to develop a comprehensive Crisis Communications/ Emergency Customer Service Plan that outlines processes for communicating in the post disaster environment, and ensures that partner agencies are engaged in this process, and delineates coordination mechanisms.
• Together with the town of Paradise and Butte County Office of Emergency Management, determine PID’s role at the jurisdictional Emergency Operations Centers and its position within those structures to ensure PID liaisons or representatives are efficiently incorporated into the response.
• Designate a board liaison who is incorporated into the PID emergency response structure to observe/participate in PID staff meetings and activities. This liaison can then appraise the board of updates in between board meetings to expedite decision making.
• Coordinate with town of Paradise and Butte County to establish procedures that allow PID to disseminate water system related or water advisory mass notifications using pre-existing emergency notification systems.
• Assign emergency response roles and responsibilities. Practice those roles, particularly with leadership positions and staff assigned as backup to leadership and management to reinforce a defined chain of command.