Living in a tinderbox in one of the most beautiful places on earth causes one to wonder if I’m crazy for living on 2-acres at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Rather than run (to where?), I’ve made it my mission to make my neighborhood of almost 200 homes more fire safe by organizing and applying to become a Firewise USA recognized community.
I hosted a well-attended event with over 15 speakers to discuss clever and innovative ways that we can mitigate wildfire. Supervisor Manu Koenig spoke about what he’s doing to improve our roads and support Firewise neighbors. Central Fire Deputy Marshal Marco Mack discussed his proposal to get reflective address and road signs up so EMS and firefighters can find us and why everyone should sign up for CODE-Red, and Tony Akin, Central Fire, shared tips on home hardening, evacuation, and sheltering in place.
Then we had experts talk about using ham and MURS radio communication when our power goes out. Others talked about CERT, Go Bags, and limbing up and trimming trees. Having these enthusiastic members of nonprofit organizations sharing their tips and encouraging our neighbors to get involved created a powerful message: We can do something to reduce our fire risk.
My community wanted to know about fire-retardant paint and other products so I invited vendors to talk about the best vents (Vulcan Vents), paints (Firefree), services (Safer Building Solutions), and fire insurance and Wildfire Defense Systems (State Farm). Guests talked to these vendors about their individual concerns for hours after the event.
I invited 2 of my students to share their solutions for keeping their homes safe. Arul Mathur introduced F.A.C.E. (Fire Activated Canister Extinguisher) and Anush Anand discussed how vinyl gutters and siding are flammable.
Check out the video to learn more.
Living in a tinderbox in one of the most beautiful places on earth causes one to wonder if I’m crazy for living on 2-acres at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Rather than run (to where?), I’ve made it my mission to make my neighborhood of almost 200 homes more fire safe by organizing and applying to become a Firewise USA recognized community.
I hosted a well-attended event with over 15 speakers to discuss clever and innovative ways that we can mitigate wildfire. Supervisor Manu Koenig spoke about what he’s doing to improve our roads and support Firewise neighbors. Central Fire Deputy Marshal Marco Mack discussed his proposal to get reflective address and road signs up so EMS and firefighters can find us and why everyone should sign up for CODE-Red, and Tony Akin, Central Fire, shared tips on home hardening, evacuation, and sheltering in place.
Then we had experts talk about using ham and MURS radio communication when our power goes out. Others talked about CERT, Go Bags, and limbing up and trimming trees. Having these enthusiastic members of nonprofit organizations sharing their tips and encouraging our neighbors to get involved created a powerful message: We can do something to reduce our fire risk.
My community wanted to know about fire-retardant paint and other products so I invited vendors to talk about the best vents (Vulcan Vents), paints (Firefree), services (Safer Building Solutions), and fire insurance and Wildfire Defense Systems (State Farm). Guests talked to these vendors about their individual concerns for hours after the event.
I invited 2 of my students to share their solutions for keeping their homes safe. Arul Mathur introduced F.A.C.E. (Fire Activated Canister Extinguisher) and Anush Anand discussed how vinyl gutters and siding are flammable.
Check out the video to learn more.
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.
