We need a regional approach to effectively prevent future wildfires. Since wildfires do not stop at city or county lines, the cities and the two counties in the East Bay Hills must work together to remove hazardous vegetation and take other steps to prevent a future disaster like the 1991 firestorm. Local fire departments work together to fight fires, when necessary, under mutual aid agreements. We need a similar approach to prevent wildfires.
A citizens group spearheaded by the Claremont Canyon Conservancy and the Oakland Firesafe Council has been working with local public officials to enhance such cooperation. Originally proposing a Joint Powers Agency for wildfire prevention, a consensus has evolved to create instead a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among the local government agencies. With funds raised from the two organizations and individual members together with grants from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the Donner Family Foundation and PG&E, a consultant was retained to help build a consensus and most recently a law firm was retained to prepare the MOU itself.
Wildfires move at hurricane speeds and force, with winds from 60 to 100 mph, fast enough to jump huge freeways. It took only one hour for the Berkeley Oakland Tunnel Fire to move from the Berkeley Hills across the Highway 24 freeway to destroy homes in the Upper Rockridge area of Oakland. To the north, it took only four hours for the Tubbs Fire to move from the Napa Valley to Santa Rosa. To the south, the Thomas Fire moved from Ventura to Santa Barbara, jumping a 15-lane freeway. Once started, extinguishing wildfires often is no longer possible, leaving evacuation as the only answer. Evacuation times are often measured in minutes, or less.
Since wildfires are impossible to stop once they get going, preventing them becomes our only choice. In Alameda County alone, there are 14 separate cities. If vegetation in our area is to be well managed to reduce the threat of wildfire, the necessary expertise, workforce and financial resources must be assembled over a broad enough area to be effective. Local agencies with all their present responsibilities unfortunately lack sufficient breadth and resources to adequately address the problem. Coordinating vegetation management among all the East Bay local public agencies is an impossible challenge without a mechanism to lead that effort.
Just as we have special districts in the Bay Area to manage air quality, water quality, and regional planning and transportation, it is time to create a wildfire prevention district to manage vegetation and dramatically reduce the fuel that causes the spread of wildfires in our wildland urban interface. Local government agencies in Alameda and Contra Costa counties can create a joint powers authority to accomplish this.
An East Bay Wildfire Prevention and Vegetation Management Agency would
(1) Develop a plan to reduce the most flammable wildlands vegetation in the East Bay Hills to the maximum extent feasible and to replace it with wildfire resistant vegetation where appropriate.
(2) The plan would protect sensitive wildlife habitats and native plant landscapes.
(3) The plan would include a “Defensible Space” program to aid owners of private property with information resources to manage vegetation on their properties.
(4) The plan would include a "Home Hardening" program to advise homeowners, schools and commercial property owners on how their structures can be protected from wildfires.
5) Raise funds by applying for state and federal grants, preparing tax measures for voter approval and other means permitted by law.
6) Implement the plan by retaining sufficient staff and equipment and/or by contracting with others to remove the most flammable vegetation in wildland areas and to implement the public information programs for defensible space and home hardening.
An added benefit of a district that addresses this problem may be that the current difficulties many property owners are facing with either cancellation of their homeowner insurance policies or huge rate increases due to increased fire risks would be lessened.
Elected Officials:
Jesse Arreguin, Berkeley Mayor
Vinnie Bacon, Fremont City Council
Keith Carson, Alameda County Supervisor
Lori Droste, Berkeley Vice Mayor
Paul Fadelli, El Cerrito Mayor
John Gioia, Contra Costa Co Supervisor
Tiffany Grimsley, Hercules City Council
Dan Kalb, Oakland City Council
Shawn Kumagai, Dublin City Council
Greg Lyman, Former El Cerrito Mayor
Rochelle Pardue-Okimoto, Former El Cerrito City Council
Gabriel Quinto. El Cerrito Mayor Pro Tem
Dee Rosario, East Bay Regional Park Board
Libby Schaaf, Oakland Mayor
Sheng Thao, Oakland City Council
Dennis Waespi, East Bay Regional Park Board
Aisha Wahab, Hayward City Council
Susan Wengraf, Berkeley City Council
Community Organizations:
Claremont Canyon Conservancy
Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association
El Cerrito Trail Trekkers
Friends of the Montclair RR Trail
Garber Park Stewards
Kensington Neighbors for Wildfire Safety
Kensington Public Safety Council
Make El Cerrito Fire Safe
Montclair Neighborhood Council
Montclair Village Association
North Hills Community Association
Oakland Firefighters IAFF Local 55
Oakland Landscape Committee
Piedmont Pines Neighborhood Assn.
Phreed (Pinole.Hercules.Rodeo.El Sobrante for Equity & Diversity)
Regional Parks Association
Richmond Firefighters Local 188
Sierra Club
South Hills Beat 35Y
94803 Emergency Preparedness Alliance
