Wildfire has horrible lessons to teach, but the tough part is actually learning them. The latest Butte County Grand Jury report makes that clear.
After the 2008 Humboldt Fire burned into southern Paradise, the Grand Jury of the time made a number of suggestions. Some of them were acted on, and that translated to saved lives in 2018 when the Camp Fire roared in.
But some things we just haven’t gotten around to.
For example, the earlier report called for clearing vegetation from along evacuation routes. Roadside fire closed the Skyway, Neal Road and Clark Road out of Paradise in 2008. In 2018, clearing along the Skyway and Clark Road kept those routes open.
However there are numerous other towns in Butte County’s foothills that depend on a single road to get out when fire comes. Some vegetation removal has been done along some of those roads, but it isn’t consistent or comprehensive. That’s mainly a matter of funding, and the fact that approval of property owners along those roads is needed to do it right.
The latest Grand Jury calls for stepping up the roadside vegetation effort, and has a number of additional suggestions:
• Sheriff’s deputies, police and California Highway Patrol officers do not have fire-resistant clothing, even though they need to respond to fires. The polyester uniforms they wear will melt if fire gets close. How is it we haven’t thought of that up to now, and dealt with it?
• Even with all the preparation done since 2008, the Camp Fire was so huge that evacuation routes couldn’t handle the number of people who had to flee. Hundreds took shelter in shopping center parking lots throughout Paradise, even though that wasn’t part of anyone’s plan. It probably should be.
• Emergency notification systems failed to alert many people, because the communication infrastructure burned. Well, we should have seen that coming. The Grand Jury suggests augmenting the system with other means of notification, like good old-fashioned sirens. It’s low tech, but it works. They used to be common in the area. The only operating one we know of now is on the fire station in Biggs. Maybe they should become common again.
The full report, if you want to read it, is at https://tinyurl.com/buttegrandjury2018.
Then it’s just a question of whether we’ll act on it.
July 7, 2019
Chico Enterprise-Record
By Editorial Board
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