Santa Clara County ramps up efforts to prevent massive wildfires
LOS GATOS (CBS SF) -- With the mega fires of 2020 still relatively fresh on the minds of South Bay leaders, Santa Clara County officials are stepping up prevention efforts ahead of the fire season.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a new Wildfire Resilience Program, a pilot program that will be rolled out by summer to high-risk areas in four cities on the county's westside: Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Saratoga, and Cupertino.
"California is a fire adaptive environment," Santa Clara County Fire Battalion Chief Mike Mathiesen said. "It needs fire in order to survive and be healthy. And we have built a lot of our homes in areas that have burned. If you do find yourself living in a watershed or a mountainous community that hasn't burned, it will eventually."
Mathiesen is leading recruiting efforts to build an 8-member "Fire Fuels Crew," that would focus on clearing brush, grass, and duff on public lands. The crew would work to reduce wildfire fuel loads around community infrastructure, hardening evacuation routes, and maintaining strategic fuel breaks.
The county will also add a new specialist who will personally inspect homes, and offer free advice on how to best fortify properties, that would allow homeowners to better focus time, money, and energy.
Mathiesen says homeowner attitudes towards looming fire disasters are shifting.
"I think prior to five years ago, there was not so much 'This won't happen to me,' but rather, 'It hasn't happened, so why should I worry about it?'" Mathiesen said. "I think they're becoming aware and they want to do the right thing. We're trying to create a program that's going to help them do the right thing."
Darrell Ray, Deputy Director of the Office Emergency Management, says the county studied how Japan responded to the 1995 Kobe Earthquake, and encouraged citizens to lean on their neighbors for help, an acknowledgment that first responders cannot handle disasters alone.
"Neighbors during a catastrophic event are typically the first line of assistance, not the government. So we really want folks to get to know their neighbors, so that they can be in a spot to help each other," said Ray. "The more prepared the public is, the easier it is for government to respond and recover from a disaster."
Ray encouraged citizens to sign up for Santa Clara County's emergency alerts, at www.alertscc.org, and to visit www.preparescc.org for emergency preparedness information.
Mike Leininger, a homeowner in Los Gatos, spent several days clearing out brush and debris from a steep hillside in his backyard, and encouraged neighbors to do their part to increase the overall safety of their neighborhood.
"I think it's worth it and I feel much safer having done it. Whatever you can do that helps you, is ultimately going to help your neighbor as well," said Leininger.
The Fire Fuels Crew is expected to begin its work by July.