EVACUATION ZONES DISCUSSED
Sherwood Firewise Communities (SFC) Quarterly meeting July 8 included special presentations and an abundance of information on promoting fire safety in the area.
Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services Director Brentt Blaser discussed the newly-launched count- wide evacuation zones, which are available at mendoready.org. Residents can visit the website and enter their address to find out what evacuation zone they live within. Blaser explained the ease of using the map is device dependent and recommended residents play around with the map to determine in which zone they reside. He said that while the final product is presented in Google Maps, the shapes were built utilizing a Graphic Information System (GIS) application. Blaser said in the future, the county may convert the map to GIS to create a more stable product, depending on the resources available for the project.
Blaser encouraged community members to sign up for emergency notifications on the Everbridge and Nixle websites and update information annually. Residents of Brooktrails Township, the Gates and Sylvandale are additionally encouraged to sign up for Safetynet notifications.
Executive Director of Mendocino County Fire Safe Council (MCFSC) Scott Cratty encouraged residents to sign up for Chipper Days by visiting chipperday.com/mendocino. Once enough residents in a neighborhood sign up for the free service, a chipper comes out to remove debris that has been placed on the side of the road. Cratty explained, “Once we see a cluster of people emerging in a given area that are interested in the service, we schedule days to meet that demand. So, be on the waiting list if you are interested in the service.” There are 60 chipper days left for the remainder of the calendar year.
Cratty discussed a FEMA funded program that helps residents pay to upgrade their roofs to Class A fire safe roofs. Three conditions must be met to be eligible for funds: you must reside in a high fire risk area, you must have a roof that is not Class A fire safe, and you must agree to maintain defensible space for the life of the roof. Visit firesaferoof.com for more information.
MCFSC also has a program for people who are income-qualified and unable to create defensible space around their home. Funding is available for 72 households, 16 have been completed already, and MCFSC is currently accepting applications for the program at firesafemendocino.org.
Cratty mentioned that there is an upcoming Greenbelt Vegetation Management project that is set to occur in Brooktrails. More information will be provided at a later date.
Brooktrails Township Community Service District General Manager Tamara Alaniz gave a water supply update. She said the total capacity of the reservoirs in Brooktrails is 88 percent, which is typical for this time of year. Alaniz expanded, “We have enough water to provide health and sanitation for all of our customers. We have enough water to be able to have fire abatement, firefighting and fire suppression. We have that right now. The best way to keep that, and the best way to stay fire safe with our water supply is for people to try to use the lease amount as possible. Try to conserve.”
An important way to conserve water is to not leave sprinklers running while evacuated due to fire. Doing so not only uses a great amount of water over the course of the evacuation, but also impedes the firefighter’s ability to fight the fire by lowering water pressure.
SFC discussed the possibility of meeting in person for the next quarterly meeting on October 14. For more information, visit sherwoodfirewise.org or email info@sherwoodfirewise. org. The volunteer-run organization is always in need of more volunteers.