Grand Jury Bcfpd response to Grand Jury report 1 message

Vegetation/fuel management and abatement are not receiving the attention nor funding needed from the County of Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors, and therefore are not adhering to California Government Executive Order 1.8.19-EO- N-05-19. AGREE X PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The 5th district representitive, Bruce McPherson has been a supporter hosting several community meetings on the topic of wildfire preparation. He recently worked with the Felton FPD in contributing $20,000 to a fuel reduction project along Mt Hermon Rd to fortify one of the main evacuation routes out of the San Lorenzo Valley. This is a good start but, there needs to be more funds allocated to Vegetation/fuel management.

Santa Cruz County residents are at increased risk of fire danger due to the lack of risk management for wildfire. Specific risks are not formally identified, tracked, assessed for impact, nor is progress reported by fire departments in the County. Therefore, leaders responsible for budgets and accountability are left unprepared to manage risk, impact, or performance. AGREE X PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The development of a local risk assessment tool is in progress with participation from all the county fire agencies, County office of emergency services, and CAL Fire. Establishing best practices for balancing fuel reduction with environmental impact needs to be considered before implementing new policy. Currently, we follow the fire risk map used by CAL Fire in the state responsibility area (SRA) for tracking risk within our district. Fire Safe Council of Santa Cruz County helps secures grant funding and tracks fuel reduction efforts across the county as well.

City and County officials have not collaborated with PG&E to identify the location of high risk PG&E electrical equipment, and so are left uninformed as to how to manage their responsibilities or how to instruct residents about potential danger due to proximity to this equipment. AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion X DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The County Office of Emergency Services has hosted several meetings with PG&E where county first responders could ask questions regarding PG&E’s policies and procedures for wildfire response, power shut offs, and offered training to the fire crews on identification of electrical hazards in the wildland. PG&E has hosted several town hall meetings in 2019, in the San Lorenzo Valley to educate residents on how to prepare for power shutoffs and other emergencies.

Santa Cruz County would greatly benefit if steps were taken to implement the CAL FIRE, San Mateo - Santa Cruz Unit 2018 recommendation of developing detailed, site specific Community Wildfire Protection Plans for communities throughout the County. X AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree):

Response time data for fire departments in Santa Cruz County is challenging to obtain. Santa Cruz Regional 9-1-1 previously reported response time data in their annual reports, but did not do so in the 2018 or 2019 annual reports. AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion X DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): This information was not asked for and can be easily obtained in a short amount of time.

Roadside vegetation in rural areas of the County is not being cleared consistently which could potentially increase emergency response time, putting life and property in unnecessary danger. Furthermore, evacuations could be restricted as there is no rule or program that mandates that roads, even critical evacuation routes, be kept cleared meeting defensible space requirements. X AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree):

There are only approximately 17,000 accounts for the Santa Cruz County opt-in CodeRED™ emergency system, which implies that a significant portion of the County may not receive emergency alert messages, which potentially reduces residents’ opportunity to take action in a timely, life-saving manner. AGREE X PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): We would like to explore options for expanding alerting. Code Red has been a great tool but has limitations in areas where cellular service is lost in power shut offs. AM radio and NOAA weather alert radios show potential for expanding the reach of alerting. Additionally the use of our Station 1 Air raid siren has proven to work in allerting residents of danger. The Fire District has also used social media as an outlet to further share emergency alert information.

Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs), have been deployed in other areas of the state and have proven effective tools in alerting residents in urban and rural areas to a wildfire. However, Santa Cruz County has no such devices, increasing the risk to County residents. AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion x DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): LRADS (air raid siren), like the one that currently sits atop of the Boulder Creek down town station is in service and continues to be used as another means to alert residents of an emergency.

High risk communities in the County are left unnecessarily vulnerable due to the lack of easily accessible, published information of refuge/assembly areas and structures. AGREE x PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): When discussing areas of refuge care must be given to not give the illusion of safe assembly points for all circumstances. Depending on several factors such as fire location, direction of fire travel, wind, topography, fire behavior and the number of residents needing to evacuate, seeking refuge along an evacuation route may not be the safest action. In the BCFPD there are very few locations that could serve this purpose. Through the use of fire modeling software we hope to validate our fire protection plans and publish information in regards to when and where to go for safety. In 2018 the BCFPD did complete and publish evacuation maps for our residents. The information can be found on our website. All residents did receive a hard copy of material via mail.

Because the County does not publish a “shelter in place” plan, when a fire expands rapidly, residents cannot make informed decisions about whether to shelter in place or evacuate. AGREE X PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): We educate citizens using social media and at public events to be prepared not scared, a program to help residents with what can be done to prepare, and therefore giving them tools to make an educated decision in an emergency situation. We also have information on our website for the public on this topic. We do agree that more could be done to make this more available to the masses

Unlike the City of Santa Cruz, the County does not publish emergency evacuation routes, purportedly to avoid having old or untimely information being followed in an emergency. The County therefore withholds revealing evacuation routes until an emergency is in progress, likely creating unnecessary risk and potential for chaos. AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion X DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The BCFPD has published evacuation routes for our Dist and have published this on our website. We recently used these evac routes and proved the plan a success. We will continue to evaluate the plans and look forward to using fire modeling software for additional validation and as a tool in the field to implement an evacuation.

In the Wildland Urban Interface zone, and in many town centers, traffic choke points exist, and in some instances have roadway obstacles to traffic flow such as overgrown vegetation, concrete medians, curbs, and lane reductions resulting in roads that are inadequate for mass evacuations. X AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree):

Wildfire preparedness informational materials are well done and public education is attempted by fire departments in the County, but fails to sufficiently reach and motivate residents to act. X AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree):

The FireWise institution provides a valuable fire prevention program and, as of March 2020, there were eight FireWise communities registered in the County. Marin County, by contrast, with a similar population, has sixty registered communities, highlighting the need for more FireWise promotion and participation in Santa Cruz County. X AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree):

The County Office of Emergency Services and fire agencies in the County encourage residents to be prepared for an emergency, however the passive mechanisms such as web sites used to encourage preparedness are not proving to be sufficient. X AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree):

Property owners in the County are responsible for their own vegetation management, yet they are often not sufficiently educated about vegetation management practices, or do not have the capability, financial resources, or desire to create defensible space. X AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree):

No single organization in the County is assuming a leadership role in Fire Hazard Mitigation. It is not clear whose responsibility it is to minimize this County wide risk. AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion X DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): CAL Fire is responsible for all wildland fire related concerns within the state responsibility areas of the county. CAL Fire works with the local jurisdictions within the county to coorenate mitigation efforts. All of the rural areas including 100% of the Boulder Creek Fire District are within the state responsibility area.

The annual report to the County Board of Supervisors and the County Administrative Office by County Fire/CAL FIRE does not provide data or analysis of resources, response times, code enforcement, inspection, or education. This information is necessary to show what gaps exist between current performance and community needs in order for informed budget decisions to be made. Without adequate background information, the Board of Supervisors is unable to hold CAL FIRE accountable for the specific responsibilities specified in their contract. AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion X DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): All of the fire agencies in the county, including the county fire department report their activities to the national fire incident reporting system. The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) is a reporting standard that fire departments use to uniformly report on the full range of their activities, from fire to Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to severe weather and natural disasters. We are not in a position to comment on the relationship between the county and CAL Fire in regards to contract obligations without further research.

The four fire protection districts in the San Lorenzo Valley would benefit by further aligning their policies and procedures in anticipation of future consolidation. AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion X DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The SLV fire districts have been and continue to work together closely and share services, personnel, and equipment wherever possible. Any formal consolidation of agencies would only benefit the community if full time staffing was part of the agreement. Consolidation of the 4 volunteer agencies as one volunteer fire station would not result in any savings to the taxpayer or improvement of response times. Any such consolidation would likely result in a significant increase on parcel taxes to cover costs of additional full time staff.

Reporting data, statistics, and formats utilized by fire agencies throughout the County are highly inconsistent, uncoordinated, and therefore not readily evaluated and compared. The standard Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating system would be useful to adopt. Response time data are not well described or consistently reported by the jurisdictions, making accurate assessment difficult, especially by other agencies or by the public. x AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree):

The 2015 County of Santa Cruz Emergency Operations Management plan does not adequately address evacuation, and references data too outdated to be useful, such as a population density map from the 2000 census. X AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree):

The Grand Jury finds that formally specified baseline and target performance statements, in alignment with the Center for Public Safety Excellence Assessment Process, neither currently exist nor are they reported by fire departments in the County as required by best practice standards. There are no goals set or measures made of progress for review by the Board of Supervisors regarding County Fire/CAL FIRE performance. Other fire districts in the County are similarly remiss in reporting to their governing bodies. Appropriate goals would include progress on response times, vegetation management, and code inspection progress, all of which are necessary to properly quantify the budget and resources required for full-time, volunteer, and prison inmate workforces, in appropriate, affordable proportions. AGREE PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion X DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): While we cannot speak to the relationship between the county and CAL Fire, Boulder Creek Fire District uses NFPA 1201 (Standard for Providing Fire and Emergency Services to the Public), The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) and our records management system to monitor and set goals for the fire chief in regards to response times, training, staffing,and public education annually. We will look into accreditation process for Center for Public Safety Excellence and what benefits can be offered if any to measure performance more efficiently.