Hosting a Firewise event to mitigate wildfires

I am hosting a NRG Firewise event (North Rodeo Gulch in Soquel) on Saturday, Sept 11th, from 10:00 am to noon. It will be an official introduction to Firewise USA and will be an information-packed fire prevention seminar.

Our speakers include Manu Koenig (Bd of Supervisors; 1st District); Marco Mack and Tony Akin (Central Fire: address signs/CodeRED,home hardening); Stephanie Smith (Firewise); Dawn Mackey (Ham/MURS); Rosemary Anderson (CERT); and Matt Abernathy (Chipping with RCD).

I’ve also invited representatives who manufacture products to protect homes: John Simontacchi (Firefree); Nate Oliver (Vulcan Vents); Steve Shugart (consultant); Bill Hendrix (Safer Building Solutions); and Cindy Weigelt (State Farm homeowners insurance and WDS).

Two students will present their innovative projects: Arul Mathur (F.A.C.E. Fire Activated Canister Extinguisher) and Anush Anand (Replace Vinyl; Save Your House).

I plan to discuss our 3-year plan to mitigate wildfires in our area, how to organize a Go Bag with things around the house, and where to sign up for micro communities and the benefits of working with your neighbors.

We will launch our website nrgfirewise.com on Wednesday, Sept 8th. Looking forward to communicating with the 188 households on NRG through the forum. Hope it creates a positive experience for the members and a “keeping up with the Joneses!” movement to take action in fire prevention.

We are hosting the event at the Locatelli Ranch — one of our Safe Zones — so residents become familiar with the location. If you would like to join us for the event, please RSVP because we have limited seating. It will be outdoors and masks/social distancing will be required. We hope to record the event and will post the link here if we do.