Members of local fire safe councils gathered at the Redwood Valley Grange to offer tips about how to make their communities safer and more resilient to fire. In this story, we'll hear about how one community maintained communications during the recent disaster, and how another created maps that helped out-of-state responders find their way through unfamiliar terrain. The event was sponsored by the Hopland Research and Extension Center, and featured experts from a wide range of fire-related fields of expertise.
When I talked with Cal Fire Unit Chief George Gonzalez, he told me that other communities wanting to start a fire safe council should look to the Pine Mountain council as a blueprint. It's always tough to decide which parts of a really informative interview to use in a story, so I decided to post the complete interview with Lauren Robertson, Vice President of the Pine Mountain fire safe council, here. It's about nine minutes long, but she goes into some fascinating details about the efforts to map her community.