It’s officially fire season in Sonoma County

GENERAL SAFETY MESSAGE

Wildfire safety

• Create a safety zone of up to 100 feet around your home. Remove pine needles and dry leaves from around your home. Keep woodpiles at least 30 feet from your home.
• Know your community's local evacuation plan. Plan ahead by practicing two ways out of your neighborhood. You should know the evacuation route and plan a place where you will go.
• If you are told to evacuate, do so immediately. If you wait until the last minute, the roads may have heavy traffic. Blowing embers and debris from the fire may make it hard to see.
• Stay informed. Listen to the TV/radio broadcasts for current weather and emergency instructions. Sign up to receive local emergency alerts and warnings on both your home phone and cellphone.
• Make sure everyone in your family knows your meeting place ahead of time. Let your family and friends who do not live in your area know your meeting place.
• Keep your car fueled and keep an emergency supply bag in your car. Back your car into the garage or park it in an open space facing the direction of escape.

Outdoor fire safety

• Move the grill away from siding, decking, and other things that can catch fire.
• Stay with the grill the entire time you're cooking.
• Use long-handled barbecue tools when cooking on the grill.
• Use a metal screen over wood-burning fires to keep sparks from floating out.
• Turn off or put out fires before you leave the backyard.
• Build campfires at least 15 feet away from tent walls, shrubs or other things that burn.
• The best way to stay safe from fireworks is to not use them.

GRATON FIRE

Graton Siren

Our career staff has been in place for six months and it is going very, very well! The on-duty firefighters are doing a great job covering Graton’s emergencies. At the May Board meeting, the directors approved reducing the siren use during the day from any emergency to only fires, car crashes, or when there are simultaneous emergencies (i.e., when more fire engines are needed). That is how we have been using the siren at night since we moved into the new station in 2011. The siren will sound roughly once per week now. If you hear it, the emergency will be either a traffic collision or a fire. Between our website and the Pulse Point app, you can determine which. There is no plan to change the noon siren. As always, we will activate the siren for five minutes during disasters as another emergency notification tool. If you hear it, tune into the radio, television, social media, etc. and get informed.

2021 Pancake Breakfast

The drive-thru style pancake breakfast was a great success this year! We at Graton Fire enjoyed being able to see our community members in passing, and being able to serve them delicious pancakes! The Graton Firefighter’s Association would like to give a huge shout out and thank you to everybody who donated to the cause, you are much appreciated! Hopefully next year, the traditional “In House” pancake breakfast will be able to happen, we look forward to seeing you then next year!

FORESTVILLE FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT

Your Forestville Fire Fighters, Chief and Board of Directors are all pleased to announce that their planned consolidation with the Sonoma County Fire District has been approved by LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Committee) and will go into effect July 1st, 2021.

Back in 1938 a small group of citizens unofficially organized the Forestville Volunteer Fire Department. Over the years the District has grown from an all-Volunteer organization into a Combination Department made up of 7 Career Firefighters, including a Chief and many long serving dedicated volunteers. We currently cover 25 square miles, serve a population of over 8500 citizens and respond to over 900 calls for service a year.

The decision to pursue a consolidation with the Sonoma County Fire District was not one that was taken lightly. After careful deliberation over the last 3 years our Board of Directors, all the paid staff and Chief Franceschi all fully support this consolidation. We believe that the elevated level of service that Sonoma County Fire can provide to our citizens is something that we as a stand-alone district would never be able to offer. This includes immediately adding a full-time paid firefighter/paramedic position and advanced life support equipment to our first out engine. The Forestville Station will not be moved or eliminated and in fact will play an integral part in the operations of the Sonoma County Fire District.

We have no doubt that the citizens of our District will be served well in the extremely capable hands of Chief Heine and his incredible team, all of whom have been a pleasure to work with and clearly care for their District and how the Citizens of Forestville will become a part of it.

You will start to see our engines with the new logo on around town. In addition, there will be some new faces as well as your usual crews. We have already completed many hours of cross training and look forward to continuing to serve the great community of Forestville under the Sonoma County Fire organization.