As deputy fire chief for your district, one of my duties is to serve as operational area coordinator for fire and emergency services across our county. This entails planning for fire weather and other emergency and disaster situations among all county jurisdictions and, beyond our borders, with neighboring and distant jurisdictions, as well as with State fire resource providers.

The 2021 fire season, among the most challenging on record, made necessary an unprecedented amount of coordination to ensure availability of the right firefighting resources when and where they were needed. Given the statewide nature of this past fire season, we were often called on to plan for support to other counties and jurisdictions across the state.

A program called prepositioning, first introduced late in the 2018 fire season at the strong urging of Con Fire leadership, has come into its own, paying dividends in wildfire protection. Today, we rely heavily on this ability to put people and equipment in place across our operational area ahead of predictable fires to keep our residents, and their property safe.

Prepositioning allows us to quickly attack wildfires where they are most likely to occur, based on ever-more-sophisticated and accurate fire weather predictions. Funded by the governor through the State Office of Emergency Services, prepositioning makes firefighting task forces and strike teams available to us when we anticipate needing them. It is of immeasurable value to members of our community during our increasingly dangerous and unpredictable fire seasons.

As your fire district, we had many lessons regarding our ever-evolving fire season reinforced in 2021. One of the most important is that we cannot succeed against wildfires without assistance from you, our residents. From weed abatement and defensible space creation throughout the year, to evacuation planning, should it become necessary, oftentimes, you are the first true first responder whose “homework” makes it possible for us to protect you and your family.

Just as we plan to protect the communities we serve, I encourage you to learn what you can do to help us make you, your family and neighbors safer by reading and taking to heart our residents guide to wildfire preparedness & evacuation, available on our fire prevention pages.

Thank you for your continued support of our district.