Forestville the Good Life by Lucy Hardcastle - August 2019
The Communication:
Dear Forestville Resident,
We would like to thank you for taking the time out of your weekend to attend the Community Preparedness meeting at El Molino High School on May 19th. We had a great turnout and we look forward to our community groups forming up, expanding and working together to better prepare our community.
Our number one priority is the safety of our community and the residents. If there ever was a catastrophic event in our community, such as the October 2017 fires, we want everyone to be prepared.
If such an event happened in our community we would use both Nixle and SoCoAlert to notify our residents. Please sign up for both of those if you have not already. In addition we will do our very best to update everyone on our Facebook page, so please take a moment to like our page also. You will need to have a Facebook login to look at our page.
Nixle:
SoCoAlert:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/forestvillefire51/
After the October 2017 wildfire, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors proposed and adopted
Ordinance 13A, which is a Vegetation Management Ordinance, see link below. It is an Ordinance that the County put together to help prepare homes for wildfires. There are requirements that will help increase the survivability of your home during a fire. The County is also offering a free curbside chipper program to assist with the disposal of the brush and debris that you remove.
We plan to inspect approximately 200 homes in the Champs de Elysses neighborhood during the month of June. We will be moving to different areas of the District each year in hopes to get our property owners in compliance with the ordinance.
If you would like to start preparing your home, please take a look at the below links to assist you. We have also included a short YouTube video link below regarding wildfires and steps on how to prepare your home.
Vegetation Management Ordinance:
Defensible Space Flyer:
YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL_syp1ZScM
Chipper Program: https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/PRMD/Fire-Prevention/Vegetation-ManagementServices/Curbside-Chipper-Program/
911 from a cell phone should be routed to the appropriate dispatch center based upon the location of the caller/phone. Occasionally, until technology becomes reliable, the call is routed to a non-local dispatch center such as CHP’s dispatch in Vallejo. The Sonoma County Sheriff and REDCOM (Fire/Ambulance dispatch) maintain the following numbers that are answered with the same urgency as 911:
Sheriff: (707) 565-2121
REDCOM: (707) 576-1371
When forming neighborhood groups, please visit the two links below to give yourself and your neighbors an idea of what you should start to gather as far as information and needs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMOFtk8xeV0&list=PLaYp9JZofBz3RSYyvL57jo_95G8ziwuTV
http://sebastopolcert.org/map-your-neighborhood
Following the October 2017 wildfires, Sonoma County installed fire watch cameras throughout the County that are monitored to detect wildfires as soon as they start. Below is a link to the cameras, if you would like to take a look at them:
http://www.alertwildfire.org/northbay/index.html
We have a classroom available free of charge for community groups to meet in if that is what works best for your group. Please call the station ahead of time to schedule the use of the room and to make sure it is available.
Be prepared to be evacuated from your residence in a moment’s notice. We suggest having a GoBag prepared. The link below provides information for what you should have in your GoBag:
We look forward to helping our community become better prepared in case of a catastrophic event. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us via email or phone.
Thank You,
Michael Franceschi Spencer Hansen Dave Franceschi
Fire Captain Engineer Fire Chief
707-887-2212 707-887-2212 707-887-2212
prevention@forestvillefire.org prevention@forestvillefire.org prevention@forestvillefire.org
