Council Warms To Wildfire Awareness Week

The Orange County Fire Authority has set aside a week in May dedicated to wildfire awareness with the goal of spurring residents to prepare themselves against possible fire emergencies.

"Here in Orange County we have not closed fire season since 2006," said OCFA Battalion Chief Greg McKeown at Tuesday's Lake Forest council meeting. "There's a lot of dead fuels out there ... if a fire is started, it still will burn."

The City Council agreed to the OCFA request's to designate the week of May 6 as Wildfire Awareness Week throughout the city.

The emphasis of Wildfire Awareness Week is to encourage personal preparedness of home and family for the extreme dry fire seasons ahead. According to the Fire Authority, approximately 94 percent of wildfires in California are caused by people and therefore preventable.  

Orange County experiences long, hot, dry seasons with winds making brush extremely dry and flammable.

Preparedness includes clearing dry vegetation surrounding homes and having a safety plan in place to protect family and belongings during a fire emergency.

For more information about fire preparedness, visit ReadySetGoOC.org.

Also at the meeting, the council recognized about 30 people who recently completed the city's Community Preparedness Academy, which prepares residents to deal with emergencies.

"We now have 200 trained residents in the city," said Jim Wren, the city's public safety manager.

He said it is the 8th class to graduate from the annual program.