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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: As wildfires near containment, diocese evaluates emergency response
[Episcopal News Service] Though many California wildfires are nearing containment, some of more than one hundred which started June 20 and 21 from lightning strikes continue to burn in Mendocino County.An evacuation warning for Greenfield Ranch, a community near Ukiah, California, was finally lifted July 2. Mari Brandon, a member of St. Francis in the Redwoods Episcopal Church in Willits, with her family and neighbors, had been evacuated briefly during the worst of the fire.
In Laytonville, Donnalee Hart, another member of St. Francis, found it difficult to decide what to pack in case of evacuation. "Being faced with the question of what you want to take if your home burns to the ground is overwhelming," she said. "If you have 10 minutes, what do you want to take (besides the bags you have packed already)?"
In the Red Mountain fire zone, where Hart and her extended family live, both official volunteers and many private citizens worked to make fire breaks and stand fire watch until resources could
be freed up to get professional firefighters in. "Community members have also been essential in
organizing aid to clear areas around homes," said Hart.
For the second Sunday in a row at St. Francis, prayers were offered in the liturgy for firefighters, paid and volunteer, as well as for those experiencing floods and tornados in other parts of the country.
"Everywhere I go I've heard great expressions of thanks for firefighters, which is gratifying for me since two of my sons are doing that this season," said Northern California Bishop Barry Beisner.
So far firefighters are holding up well, with no serious injuries reported yet this season, according to Kenn McCarty, fire captain serving as a duty officer at the Cal Fire Sacramento Command Center.
The center combines key operations of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, and the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, with representatives of other state departments and agencies who can deploy resources.
"The merging of these three centers into one is why California leads the nation in emergency response capabilities," says McCarty, a member of St. John's Episcopal Church in Lakeport, California.
California's wildlands have evolved to burn as a natural process of renewal, he notes, "and extreme fire summers such as what we are seeing right now have happened throughout the state's history.
"But," adds the fire fighter of 28 years, "this is a first for me."
The Rev. Richard Yale, rector at St. John the Evangelist Church, Chico, California, reflecting on the Humboldt Fire in Butte County, also noted that fires in his area are not uncommon. When the fire began on June 11, people expected a routine evacuation of some remote residential areas and a wait for the all clear.
"As I called a few parishioners who live on the edge of Butte Creek Canyon we joked about meeting in a familiar parking lot at the base of the Ridge," he said, but by the next day they realized this fire was different.
"Parishioners of both St. John's and St. Nicholas' in Paradise rushed to evacuate down the few crowded roads leading into the valley."
Both Yale and the Rev. Ann Sullivan, rector of St. Nicholas Episcopal Church, connected with as many parishioners as possible and offered help at evacuation centers.
A week later Beisner presided at a service of healing at St. Nicholas. Fires are still burning in the area, and air quality remains a continuing problem as smoke backs up against the ridges to the east.
Shirley Hughes, St. Nicholas' communications director, notes that the continuous hazardous ratings for air quality are particularly hard on the large number of older people in the congregation and community.
Yale says that the clergy of several denominations in the area are talking about what they learned from the experience. "We are not as prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or floods as some nearby regions, so may have been lax in our emergency planning," he notes. The clergy saw that procedures for evacuating those with special needs, such as elders receiving home health care and the developmentally disabled, need to be strengthened.
"These fires have been the classic wake up call for me," says Hart of her experience in Mendocino County, underscoring the need to prepare for emergencies.
Brandon said the area around her house had been "a total tanglewood," but adds that her "daughter rounded up a crew of friends, and they and some other people have done a lot of weed-eating, raking, chainsawing, etc., so that now our place is much more fire-safe."
McCarty said that the name for such an area is "defensible space." This doesn't mean "moon-scaping" your property, he said, adding that there are many good ideas for how to increase fire safety in landscaping on the Cal Fires website.
An unusually dry late winter and spring, caused when the jet stream moved north over Washington and British Columbia in February, has contributed to the fire danger this year in California.
"We seem to be doing okay so far," says Beisner, since no loss of life or homes has been suffered by members of the diocese, "but it's awfully early in the season, and that's a worry."
The dioceses of El Camino Real, San Joaquin and Los Angeles have also suffered fires so far this season. The California fire season normally ends with the first substantial rains of fall.