Orange County Fire Authority Wildfire Action Plan Expo

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The Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) hosted a Wildfire Action Plan Expo on February 11th for the residents of Yorba Linda, a city that was hit hard by the Freeway Complex Fire in November of 2008. The state of California is prone to wildfires year round due to drought conditions, Santa Ana winds in some areas, and brush covered hills, canyons and forests throughout the state. Recognizing this problem, the Orange County Fire Authority, which serves 1.3 million residents in twenty-two cities and unincorporated areas of Orange County, California, has been proactive in forming wildfire defense strategies that include firefighters and the public. The goal of the Wildfire Action Plan Expo was to help homeowners prepare for future wildfire threats, giving them the tools they need to make the best decisions before, during and after a wildfire.

The speakers at the Wildfire Action Plan Expo emphasized the importance of preparing homes for wildfires immediately. While no home or property can be made completely fire-safe there are measures that home owners can take to make them more fire resistant. According to Orange County Fire Authority Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion, "First, they need to either retrofit or add fire resistant building construction features to their homes. The next thing is to make sure that they have defensible spaces." These steps have been taken with success in other communities in California and throughout the United States.

In addition to preparing their homes for the threat of a wildfire, Battalion Chief Concepcion says residents also need to be prepared for the possibility of evacuation, and the second focus of the Wildfire Action Plan Expo was to give residents the information they need to make the best decisions regarding evacuation. While it is the inclination of some property owners to want to stay and protect their houses from the wildfire, this can have tragic consequences, as the recent Australian wildfires illustrated. OCFA's wildfire action plan emphasizes that homeowners can never replace firefighters in extinguishing these dangerous fires; however, there are things that they can do to assist firefighters, including modifying their homes to make them more fire resistant and having the knowledge about when it is necessary to evacuate during a wildfire. At the Wildfire Action Plan Expo, OCFA presenters imparted this knowledge upon the hundreds of Yorba Linda residents in attendance, teaching them about the "trigger points" that signal the need for early evacuation.

Homeowners who attended the meeting were also able to learn about various products on the market designed to help them prepare and protect their homes. Several vendors were on hand at the Expo, displaying the latest innovations in wildfire protection. Brandon Singleton of Pump and Hose LLC featured his company's patented pool pumping system. The Mount Baldy, California resident, who was once the victim of a wildfire, developed a product that employs a 6.5 HP pump and a hose line to use pool water for fire protection. Singleton's system can empty a standard pool in three hours. According to the business owner, his product has been in use for four years in several California wildfires, and he claims that two of his Yorba Linda customers used the Pump and Hose system to protect and save their homes during the Freeway Complex Fire.

Yorba Linda residents who attended the conference were happy with the proactive wildfire action plan presented by the Orange County Fire Authority. Charise Hammond, one attendee, spoke about how the meeting gave her better knowledge of when to evacuate and how to navigate the roads during an evacuation, citing the difficulty that she and her children faced when trying to leave Yorba Linda during the Freeway Complex Fire. Armed with this type of knowledge and an effective plan, the Orange County Fire Authority and the residents it serves can go forth and better face the threat that California wildfires present.