California Fire Disaster Mitigation

California Wildfires As of an hour ago, more than 500,000 people were forced to flee the wild fires raging in south-eastern California. These fires are so extensive (260,000 acres) they can be seen from space. According to a San Diego Fire and Rescue spokesman, they are more serious than the blazes that ravaged California in 2003 when 22 people died. Fortunately, there is only one death so far but more than 700 homes and 100 businesses have been destroyed. And the forecast is not good. The powerful and unpredictable Santa Ana winds, responsible for the rapid spread of the flames with gusts of up to 100 miles/hour, are not expected to diminish until tomorrow.

President Bush declared an emergency in California and ordered federal aid to the fire stricken region. This afternoon, FEMA will issue a press release about volunteers and donations, and among other things, will urge people looking for ways to help to register at HelpInDisaster.org.

Below is a report from Brian Bolton from Volunteer Centers of California. As he mentions, they are not taking volunteers right now but this is expected to change in the next 48 hours. We will keep you informed of new developments and opportunities to help your colleagues.

We hope our colleagues in California are safe and this crisis soon resolved.

Message from Brian Bolton:

I know you are seeing a lot of news about the California Fires and I am providing this update to inform you of the activities of our Volunteer Center Association in California.

Today, Governor Schwarzenegger issued a state of emergency proclamation for the counties of Los Angeles,

Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura due to more than eleven major wildfires. Throughout the region, more than 100,000 acres have burned, and more areas are threatened. The wildfires have caused the loss of human life and serious injuries. They have burned a number of homes, businesses and other structures. Residents have been evacuated in dangerous areas. This situation is fluid as we are learning about new fires frequently during the day. I have attached a map from California's Office of Emergency Services that illustrate the fire locations effective 0600 on October 2007. Not that this includes all October fires including those that are 100% contained.

All of our Volunteer Center and Hands On Affiliates in California have been notified of the activities and alerted to be prepared to respond and/or inform their respective communities of volunteer needs. In these early hours, the emphasis is on fire response and suppression. Thousands of professional emergency responders are taking heroic action and citizens in the affected areas are being asked to stay off of the roads and highways. Volunteer San Diego is most active currently and they are recruiting some volunteers to support the 2-1-1 center in that community. They and the other Volunteer Centers are NOT actively recruiting volunteers yet. We expect that after 48 hours they may begin some recruitment and registration of volunteers within their local communities.

At the point, we are NOT asking for volunteers from outside the affected areas. In a community struggling to respond to and recover from this disaster, an influx of unexpected or unneeded volunteers and donations can make the process even more difficult. We are simply informing you of our activities. If Volunteer Centers outside the affected areas receive calls from their local community members, those persons should be referred to contact their local disaster agencies such as Red Cross and Salvation Army to enroll in their disaster training courses.

Volunteer San Diego - Sue Carter

The fires are spreading very rapidly with discussion that this fire is worse than the Cedar Fire four years ago. Conditions remain dangerously windy and dry with no end in sight for containment.

We have received very limited volunteer ops to date, and are forwarding volunteers to ops as we receive them. The primary message is that the majority of volunteer ops will not be evident for another 72 hours and that we will contact those who register with us once opportunities become available.

Volunteer San Diego has been publicized as the method to give help. We are managing prospective volunteers by computer and phone and evaluating the need to set up a walk-in center. I expect us to get much busier in the next couple to few days. We have enlisted the help of our volunteer disaster cadre to support staff and AmeriCorps.

Orange County Volunteer Center - Dan McQuaid and Betty Weinberg:

Volunteer Center Orange County had a meeting to alert our staff this morning. They are prepared to respond to volunteers that may contact us. I have spoken with the Red Cross and things in OC seem rather calm. Red Cross has closed their shelters and they don't anticipate opening them again unless the winds change and the fire moves into residential areas. I have also been in touch with the Emergency Operations Center. They know we are available if they need us. I will keep in touch with them throughout the day. I just sent an email and left a voice mail for the folks at Volunteer San Diego, letting them know we are here if they need our help. Just got off the phone with 2-1-1. Wanted to make sure they knew to send any call they get regarding volunteering during the fires should come to us. Their operations manager was glad to get the call and said they would forward all volunteer request to us.

Santa Clarita Valley Volunteer Resource Center - Sharalyn Hamilton

I am sure you already know Santa Clarita is a hot spot and high priority because of fires. We have lost 25 homes and have several evacuations. We are experiencing the smoke and ash because there are fires on two sides. The news will report it as Castaic, Saugus and Canyon Country - al in our area. Our local Red Cross is asking for specifically trained disaster volunteers that live in our community ONLY. I was just at city hall and they are tense and worried. One of our Board members is in charge of the City's emergency response and will let us know if there is anything we can do. All schools are closed and several roads near the fires are closed. The community is filled with smoke and ash but depending on the winds it is sometimes better than yesterday. They say the worst may prove to be this afternoon. Our center was close to the fire yesterday, but today things have shifted.

Hands On San Bernardino - Robin Kelley and Larry Deckel

We are actively monitoring the local situation and our staff is on stand-by. Mini-fires are sprouting up around us, so we cannot promise mutual aid at the moment as we may need to be active here locally. We will continue to monitor the situation and let you know any developments. In late afternoon we have learned of three additional fires in this county. One is at Arrowhead, a mountain resort community and they are being evacuated. There are reports of a 25 mile backup of vehicles leaving Arrowhead.

All other Volunteer Centers and Hands On Affiliates in California (33 sites) are on alert and are monitoring activities. If it becomes necessary the state association may elect to activate Mutual Aid agreements to support the centers that are responding to emergency needs.

Our Volunteer Center State Association is working in close partnership with our State Service Commission, CaliforniaVolunteers, and is connected with the American Red Cross, Pacific Region.

We will provide an additional update tomorrow morning.

Brian Bolton Executive Director Volunteer Centers of California 1110 K Street, Suite 210 Sacramento, California 95814 ca.vols@sbcglobal.net (916) 324-4521 Fax: (916) 323-3227 www.volunteercenterca.org