In making the decisions to protect people’s lives from hazards and disasters, evacuations sometimes become necessary. Of course early in the reaction to the incident, or the response phase, this may become a decision for local and state emergency managers. The San Diego, California wildfire which occurred in October 2007 caused a large scale evacuation. This essay is an analysis, and identification of lessons learned from the evacuation incident. As well a plan of personal recommendations and improvements will be made based on information covered in the National Housing strategy, and Robert Stafford Act. Wildfires started as an annual and seasonal occurrence in the south western region of California since the early 1930’s in part …show more content…
The tactical firefighting operation, mass notification process, evacuation plans and emergency operations command and control were readied by noon of 21 October, after timing estimates of the rapidly growing fires showed them fast approaching city limits. Starting on October 21st at 1030 hours, the Sheriff’s Department Operations Center (DOC) was activated, and reverse 911 calls were started to begin evacuations. On the 21st, eight reverse 911 calls were made, notifying 20,992 residences to evacuate. On the 22nd, 23 reverse 911 calls were made, notifying 210,156 residences to evacuate. On the 23rd, 14 reverse 911 calls were made, notifying 47,992 residences to evacuate. Finally on the 24th, one reverse 911 call was activated, notifying 900 residences to evacuate (SD County, 2008). Due to the speed of the fires, the evacuation declarations required the activation of numerous shelters; the shelters numbered 45, and were located in schools, community centers, civic centers. Two of them were considered mega shelters located at Qualcomm Stadium and the Del Mar Fairgrounds, which was also one of the five animal shelters, which itself sheltered, and cared for 2,000 horses for five days. The United States Ship, (USS Mercy) was requested and stationed off the coast so that two local hospitals in the area could evacuate patients. The manpower, and resource response for this incident was one that was not
Every Spring and Summer, Arizona loses more wilderness to the devastation of Wildfire. Our beautiful green forests and mountains are charred black not to be seen by this generation or the next. The poor and the rich are driven from their homes and cities before wildfire’s indiscriminate destructive might. Memories and dreams are wiped clean by fire and lives are forever changed. In June of 2011, Arizona had 2 major wildfires burning simultaneously. The Wallow fire in the White Mountains of Eastern Arizona and the Monument fire on Arizona’s southeastern border in the Chiricahua Mountains. Most of the valley fire departments sent teams of firefighters to combat these historic fires including myself. The human drama and fire behavior
An emergency operations plan for the community in which we live is a document of great importance to each of us whether we know it or not. This paper examines the emergency action plan for Knoxville, Tennessee. In the course of the examination, it will compare and analyze the plan for Knoxville with the standards set forth in the textbook for this course along with other recognized sources in the field of emergency management.
This chapter provides an overview that describes the basic types of hazards threatening the United States and provides definitions for some basic terms such as hazards, emergencies, and disasters. The chapter also provides a brief history of emergency management in the federal government and a general description of the current emergency management system—including the basic functions performed by local emergency managers. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the all-hazards approach and its implications for local emergency management.
Editor’s Note: This Chapter is the continuation of an adaptation of a state plan for disaster preparation and response. In total, the original chapter comprises Chapters 1, 14, 16-18.
Brush fires raise particular concerns in the arid desert where they can become large-scale incidents requiring numerous resources and can endanger homes, lives, and personal property. The frequency of brush fire calls when all similar code types are combined total 42 brush fires for the previous 20 months of which 22 were considered working fires. Of the 22 working fires 16 were set intentionally and ruled arson, of which 8 were started by juveniles. There are 3 fires were accidently started by misuse of a heat source (2 campfires and 1 person burning weeds with a propane torch) and
California Fire was born of the Conservation movement of the late 19th century. Newspaper stories
The history of emergency management dates back in 1803 when a great fire struck Portsmouth city in New Hampshire. In response to this firebreak out, the Congress passed into law the Congress Act, 1803 to compensate the Portsmouth merchants. The Portsmouth city fire breakout and the congress response to the disaster set a precedent, which was applied in United States in management of emergencies like the 1835 terrific fire of New york city, fire break out at Chicago in 1871, the Galveston hurricane of 1900, and the 1906 San Francisco horrible earthquake up to mid-20th century (Rubin, 2012).
Looking upon the web journal “Why were California’s wine country fires so destructive”, author Jon Keeley takes in every factor that could have altered why the past and present wildfires have destructed the same area in California. Since late October the northern part of California has been affected by dozens of wildfires that has burned over 160,000 acres of land (Keeley). Upon researching the recent fires, Keeley noticed that Tubbs fire that occurred in Napa Valley this year, reflects many similarities to the Hanley fire that took place in 1964. Keeley looked into how the winds, population growth, climate change, and human factors have made these wildfires similar and indifferent.
Massive wildfire ravaged Northern California’s wine country since Sunday night. Wildfires whipped by strong winds have swept through the region, killing at least 10 lives and more than 20000 people are forced to evacuate and flee their homes. This is one of the most destructive wildfire events in the state’s history. More than a dozen wildfires continued to burn across eight counties, destroying 1500 homes and commercial structures according to losses reported up to Tuesday. More death and destruction are expected. Authorities have not said what caused the fires but October is typically the busiest month for wildfire in California. Therefore, they believed that the hot, extremely dry condition in October created the critical fire conditions.
Emergency disaster situations can be defined in three ways accidental, natural, or wilful. An accidental disaster refers to an event which is totally unexpected such as a house fire started by an electrical fault. Similarly, an illustration of a natural disaster would be the recent earthquakes which took place in Christchurch, NZ between September 2010 and February 2011 that resulted in devastating and far reaching consequences for the country. Foremost in many minds when recollecting a wilful disaster would be the terror attacks of 9.11 in the USA. A disaster of this magnitude has never been experienced during peace time in our lifetime. This essay will examine three different aspects of rescue management procedure where reports detailing disaster and emergency response must be studied to understand and improve our handling of rescue operations.
Wildfire risk in California refers to the chance wildfires may occur as a result of human interference with nature. In the book, “Our Changing Climate 2012” by the California Natural Resources Agency, the author discusses how computer projections project that in the future, the global warming will increase at a higher rate. The author claims that “wildfire risk increases in California will also be driven to a large extent by changes in land use and development.”(Agency 3). In other words, developing real estate and construction increases the chance of wildfires. Gathering from the Agency, only by consciously constructing the human environment can society reduce the risks of wildfires. This awareness is relevant today because over the 2017
Wildfire in California is a significant environmental problem that is increasing becoming more severe. Recent studies have shown that wildfire frequency, size, and area burned are all increasing in the western United States (Miller et al. 2008). The 2015 fire season set a record for the amount of acres burned in the United States with 68,151 wildfires burning 10,125,149 acres of land (Insurance Information Institute 2015). High severity wildfires have substantial environmental, economic, and human health impacts. Policy changes such as an adaptive management system of fuel reduction, as well as communication and education are essential tools in combating wildfire in California.
What I believe to be the greatest present environmental problem faced by California is the forest fire. A drought has continued for four years in California, and on April fool’s day, 2015, Jerry Brown, California governor, eventually issued a saving water order. It is undoubtedly that the water shortage is one of the problems that California has, but the most serious problem is the forest fire. Since it doesn’t rain and the air is exceedingly dry in California, when a forest fire breaks out, the fire spreads in an instant, and the fire causes great damage; for example, a large-scale forest fire broke out in a northern part of San Diego, California, on May.21, 2015. 11,000 households were warned to evacuate the area; at least one million square
My city, West Lafayette Indiana is all hazard arrange that builds up a solitary, thorough system for the administration of city occurrences. It gives the structure and instruments to the coordination of state backing to the affected nearby governments and influenced people and organizations around it. This disaster preparedness plan clarifies the regular train and structures that have been practiced and developed at the neighborhood, tribal, state, and national levels after some time. In particular, it expands upon the National Incident Management System, which gives a reliable format to overseeing occurrences.
As fall began in 1970, California had experienced practically no rainfall for many months, humidity levels dropped to being practically non existent, and the earth was scored from the raging summer heat (Rowley, n.d.). These conditions provided ample fuel for a wildfire that would burn for 13 days before being beaten back and extinguished by firefighters. Initially, it appeared controlling the fire spread would be done easily and quickly. However, multiple fires spawned rapidly into large fires that overwhelmed the local resources. Lack of communication, communication and application of skill became quickly evident as a major flaw in the control and command of such a large event. Prior to 1970 the Incident Command Systems did not exist, but