Blog note: This article refers to a Santa Cruz County grand jury report.
So begins a Santa Cruz County civil grand
jury report released on July 3 — 43 days before lightning sparked a series of
fires that only seemed to burn half of the Bay Area. Grand jury reports are
meant to illuminate budding problems in the community, but rarely are they this
prescient. But then there have been 13 civil grand jury reports highlighting
ongoing fire danger in nine California counties since 2007. If California burns
to the ground, it won’t be because no one warned us.
The
most recent report noted that Santa Cruz County is the only county in the state
that falls mostly in the wildland-urban interface — largely rural or forested
areas that are increasingly populated. Before the CZU Lightning Complex fires
there were about 72,000 homes in the Santa Cruz County wildland-urban
interface. Nearly 1,000 of them burned to the ground. In all, 77,000 people
were evacuated at the height of the most devastating fires in these parts in
recent memory.
One
of the lessons we’ve learned again and again is the need for better, earlier
warnings. Cal Fire only had one early alert camera in the area at the time of
the CZU Lightning Complex fires. Text alerts and other high-tech notifications
continue to be imperfect. Our own San Mateo County civil grand jury found last
year that only 2 percent of our county residents knew of evacuation routes and
emergency shelter sites before they needed them. The Marin County grand jury
found last year that 90 percent of that county’s residents had not signed up
for emergency alerts.
Again
and again, these grand juries have found that we underestimate the potential
for fire and just how quickly it moves. In the days after ignition, Cal Fire incident
commander Assistant Chief Billy See said the CZU Lightning Complex was
devouring 1,000 acres an hour. That is barely a crawl compared to the deadly
Camp Fire in Paradise in 2018. The initial spread there was estimated at 4,600
acres an hour.
Many
times, firefighters have described being overwhelmed in the early days of
wildfire. Cal Fire said repeatedly in the early days of the CZU fires that it
lacked resources to do more than keep people safe. Over and over we hear of
evacuation roads that are overloaded as terrified residents creep toward
safety. And most of us continue to ignore state law that mandates “defensible
space” around our homes.
The
Santa Cruz County civil grand jury makes more than a dozen recommendations to
improve fire safety in a county that has now suffered the most destructive
wildfire in recent history. Many are technical and involve better governance of
agencies designed to protect us. It goes easier on those of us who choose to
live amid the increasing danger.
We
should honor the heroic firefighters who are still working to surround the fire
in the Santa Cruz Mountains by doing our part — signing up for alerts,
receiving emergency training, clearing our property and creating a family fire
plan. Until we do, the warnings — and deadly fires — will continue.
Half
Moon Bay Review
Clay Lambert
September 9, 2020
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