Lessons we can all learn from the Four Mile Canyon Fire:
1. Do as much mitigation as you can while you can. If you wait until a fire threatens, it’s too late. Reports are that there had been significant mitigation efforts made in this area over the years. It won’t be evident until the fire is out and a full assessment can be made however mitigation increases the odds that your home will be saved.
2. Have a plan and know what to grab if you are told to evacuate immediately. People and pets first then clothing and medications followed by sentimental items or valuable items. The second day of the fire, I heard of evacuated residents asking to be let back in to retrieve medications - don’t assume you’ll be able to make it back!
3. Have a communications plan set in advance with your family and friends. Know who you’ll call to let them know your status and let everyone who cares about you know who this contact is. I heard ER personnel being taken off of immediate tasks to perform ‘welfare check’s way too often during this incident.
4. IF you choose not to evacuate when advised, you are on your own. Assume that utilities (electric and gas) will be cut. Ask family and friends not to bother ER personnel checking on you during the incident. Don’t assume that you can make it safely out if you feel ‘threatened’ - roads out may be impassible, if not impassible, they may be in use by fire personnel trying to get IN to the area and you attempting to get out just complicates the matter.
5. Make sure the entrance to your driveway is clearly marked with your address using reflective material on a non-flammable surface.
Regarding #3, have an out of state contact point for everyone to use - local communications are likely to be unavailable/overloaded.
This
Family Communications Plan, from Appendix C of the FEMA training course IS-00022, Are You Ready? An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness, is the best guide I have seen to help in creating a plan to assure that members of the family will be able to re-establish contact.
ty for the reminders. hadn't considered out of state contact.
bumper sticker - honk if you will pay my mortgage
"The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." attributed to Margaret Thatcher
"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government." Thomas Jefferson
