Fire Safe Council

Our mission is to make our community fire safe through roadside vegetation management, greenbelt clearing, establishing evacuation plans and encouraging homeowners to contribute by clearing their own defensible space and evacuation plans.

Please join us for our monthly meeting.  Our meetings are held on the second Tuesday of the month at 7:00pm at the GRF Lodge. 

 _____________________________________

Special Presentation

The Camp Fire ~ Phones, Fires and Failures

Info for meeting that was held last month - great info and information

THIS COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE IN AN EMERGENCY!!! SAVE THE DATE!!! 

You've been asking about emergency evacuations and communications and we have listened.

Alan Thompson was at our Fire Safe Council meeting to gave a talk about the Internet and cell

phone communications problems during the Camp Fire and what is being done in El Dorado County

to better prepare for such an incident. . This was a great presentation recently shown at the last

Pleasant Valley Fire Safe Council meeting. 

Alan Thompson was part of a four-person, disaster-recovery team dispatched to Butte County on

November 17 to help restore cell phone service destroyed by the 2018 Camp Fire, which decimated

the communities of Paradise, Magalia and Concow. Working there turned him into an "Accidental

Advocate" for community and fire safety. He realized that a disaster just like the Camp Fire could

happen in his own hometown of Placerville. It could happen anywhere in California.

Presentation: The Camp Fire ~ Phones, Fires and Failures This is an audio/video presentation

about The Camp Fire, with an emphasis on emergency communications planning and execution that

went terribly wrong and offers suggestions on how to help our communities stay safer in the event

of similar disasters here.

Alan states, “One thing is clear; we must find more resilient solutions to help ensure our

communities get timely, life-saving information about fast-moving disasters like the Camp Fire,

especially in light of our present-day over-reliance on cell phones and the Internet for everything -

technologies which, in turn, depend on a trillion dollars of vulnerable infrastructure not to fail.” The

Presentation also offers suggestions on how we all can help to make our communities safer in the

event of local disasters like the Camp Fire and provides an introduction to Neighborhood Radio

Watch Programs. The presentation shares:

• Time Line detailing events that unfolded on November 8, the first day of the fire

• Catastrophic points of failure that impacted emergency communications, alerts, and evacuations,

placing peoples' lives at risk

• Our Team's role in restoring damaged cell phone communications, and day-lighting cell-phone

service vulnerabilities that caused us to be there in the first place

• Steps we can all take right now to help support better emergency communications in our own,

local communities

• Introduction to second presentation "Radio For The Rest of Us" picks up where the Camp Fire

presentation leaves off. It details how to set up "Neighborhood Radio Watch Programs" in local

communities to help keep us safer during disasters:

http://www.alanthompson.com/The_Camp_Fire_Phones_Fires_and_Failures_Presentation_by_Alan_Thompson_W6Wn.asp

RESOURCES FOR YOUR USE

El Dorado County Fire Protection District (EDCFPD) – http://www.eldoradocountyfire.com/

El Dorado County Fire Protection District (EDCFPD) – Stations and District Map

https://www.eldoradocountyfire.com/district/community-stations/

EDC Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) info on Special Districts -

https://www.edlafco.us/fire-protection-districts

Chipping Program 2019 – http://www.edcfiresafe.org/programs-grants-2/chipper-program/

Before You Burn Check Local Burn Regulations and Air Quality District Information

https://www.edcgov.us/Government/AirQualityManagement/Pages/burn_information_(outdoor

).aspx AND http://www.fire.ca.gov/fire_protection/fire_protection_burnpermits

Emergency Notifications: The El Dorado County reverse 911 system provides home and business,

land line, mobile phone text and email notifications. http://ready.edso.org/

El Dorado County Fire Safe Council educational materials – http://www.edcfiresafe.org/

El Dorado County Fire Safe Council Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) portion

covering Coloma Lotus - http://www.edcfiresafe.org/about-the-council/satellite- councils/lotus-

coloma-fsc/community-wildfire-protection-plan/

FireWise (National Fire Protection Association) webinars and other educational materials -

https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/By-topic/Wildfire/Firewise-USA

American Red Cross: Gold County Region - training and volunteer opportunities

https://www.redcross.org/local/california/gold-country.html

slide deck link here -  https://www.dropbox.com/s/8zb541yi6vlev8e/Phones%2C%20Fire%2C%20and%20Failures%20-%20Gold%20Ridge%20Slide%20Deck.pdf?dl=0 

Source videos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/c9tctpff4p8uhdt/AADFUojSrbOpwnZjvk1bSWEca?dl=0