Fire Safety News Serving the communities of Castle Creek, Champagne Village, Deer Springs, West Lilac, Gordon Hill, Hidden Meadows, Jesmond Dene, Rimrock, and the Welk Resort A 501(c)(3) Community Service Organization AUGUST 5, 2016 LIVING WITH WILDFIRE Stay Aware to Stay Alive A US Forest Service BAe 146 swoops in to drop flame retardant last month during the Sand Fire in Los Angeles County. / Photo by Craig Durling, Durling Media Inside This Issue Forward this issue to a friend When's the Best Time to Evacuate? Homeowners Guide to Situational Awareness Bees, Spiders and Rattlesnakes, Oh My! Emergency Text Messages Possible Fire District Invites You to Open House Have you heard? When's the Best Time to Evacuate? Early Last month the Sand Fire snuffed out a life in Santa Clarita. Robert Bresnick was discovered burned to death in his car as he tried to escape swirling flames on his remote property near the Angeles National Forest. According to published reports, Bresnick and his partner apparently were trying to evacuate and were rounding up their dogs when they got separated. His partner was rescued by firefighters after she became trapped by approaching flames. A firefighter called to Bresnick to direct him from harm’s way, but Bresnick may not have heard him over the roaring fire and went in the opposite direction, maybe to look for his partner. Bresnick tried to drive out and he didn’t get far. It was the last decision he would make. It is unfair to critique someone’s decision-making when a wildfire is bearing down on them. Original accounts of this event blamed Bresnick for being “uncooperative” and refusing to evacuate when told to. That was not the case. If any critique is warranted, it may be to ask why the couple waited so long to evacuate, when it was known that a wildfire was raging nearby. Closer to home, the Border Fire in June claimed two lives, Potrero residents James Keefe and his wife, Catherine Phelps-Keefe. Their story shares a common element with the Santa Clarita couple’s, because like Robert Bresnick, they didn’t realize how close the fire was until it was too late. When they realized the danger they attempted to run to safety on foot, and were overtaken by fast-moving flames. Deer Springs Fire Marshal Sid Morel and wildland firefighters say that situational awareness is critical in coping with wildfire. For firefighters in the midst of battling flames, this means knowing what’s happening around them every second and assessing risk. For residents of the wildland urban interface — that space where the city blends with the country, as we enjoy in Deer Springs — it means being sensitive to fire risk at all moments, knowing where and when fire may break out, and keeping an eye on fire when it does. It also means evacuating sooner rather than later. The Deer Springs Fire Safe Council and the Deer Springs Fire Protection District are dedicated to educating residents about fire safety. The Fire Safe Council operates an Emergency Communications System that calls you when a wildfire threatens. (Please be aware that this system is different from San Diego County’s Alert San Diego system, which issues evacuation orders.) The Fire Safe Council’s call system is for informational purposes only. You can sign up for it by going here (link). The Fire Safe Council also operates an informational hot line that residents can call for updates on local events. This phone line, 949-472-1407, was most recently updated during the Roblar Fire, which burned more than 1,000 acres on Camp Pendleton last month. It is our way of working to keep you informed so you can remain situationally aware during any emergency. To register your cell phone to receive evacuation orders from county authorities, go to Ready San Diego. Firefighters try to get the upper hand on the Sand Fire during night operations last month. / Photo by Craig Durling, Durling Media Notes from the Wildland Urban Interface ... Homeowners Guide to Situational Awareness By Sid Morel, Deer Springs Fire Marshal Summer is upon us and wildland fire danger is incredibly high. Ideally you have made improvements to your home’s defensible space and possibly made some changes to improve your home’s resistance to fire. And now that extreme fire weather is upon us it is time to make situational awareness part of your everyday routine. Firefighters use the acronym LCES to create fire ground situation awareness. The L stands for lookouts, the C stands for communications, the E stands for escape routes, and the S for safety zones. LCES can also work for residents in the wildland urban interface, or WUI. Lookouts refer to always having someone keeping an eye on the fire. It’s easy to get focused on a flank of the fire and lose track of fire embers spotting over your head. Residents should keep a constant lookout for fires and fire status. Remember we want you to evacuate before being told. A couple of ways to keep informed on the fire is to register your phone numbers with Alert San Diego and with the Deer Springs Fire Safe Council Emergency Communications System, which will issue a message by phone if a fire is threatening. The Fire Safe Council also operates an informational hot line that you can call for the latest information. The phone number is 949-472-1407. You can also download the San Diego County Emergency smart phone app, which contains information on local emergencies, and monitor your local radio and television stations as well. Communications for firefighters refer to having contact with fellow firefighters at all times. For residents it means making sure your family has discussed and knows your evacuation plan and rendezvous points after you’ve evacuated. Local communication systems may be overwhelmed so you might want to establish an out-of-state family contact for everyone to check in with. You can register multiple lines with the contacts above so that family members will also get a reverse 9-1-1 order. Escape Routes means you want to know your escape routes and ideally have more than one. Drive them now and learn them before being told to evacuate. It’s important to know which direction the fire is coming from and proceed away from the fire. Safety Zones for residents consist of pre-established meeting points away from the community where you live. For example, have the family meet at the Walmart at College Boulevard and Highway 76 in Oceanside, or a Costco parking lot. The tenets of Ready, Set, Go encourage you to prepare your home ahead of time, get set to evacuate and go before being told. Remember, traffic jams and panic may make a late evacuation extremely dangerous. You can also download a personal “Wildland Fire Action Guide” here. Deer Springs paramedics recommend calling 9-1-1 if you've been bitten by a rattlesnake. / Photo by Gary Nafis, California Herps Bees, Spiders and Rattlesnakes, Oh My! You’ve seen this movie scene. The hero is crossing the wildland urban interface (OK, we made that part up), steps next to a sagebrush and gets bitten on his ankle by a rattlesnake. So what does our hero do? He pulls out his trusty Bowie knife (it’s always a Bowie knife) cuts an X over the snakebite and sucks out the venom, occasioning a lot of cinematic grimacing and spitting. And he saves his own durned life. Stop. Cut. Don’t print. This and many other farfetched remedies are perfect examples of WHAT NOT TO DO if you’ve been bitten by a rattlesnake, according to your Deer Springs Fire Department paramedics, who know better than a passel of movie stars. What our hero should have done, says CAL FIRE firefighter/paramedic Jonathan Hamblin, was to take out his cell phone and call 9-1-1 immediately (after all, he was in the WUI). Then he should have lain down and made sure the snakebite was level with his heart, so that the venom had less opportunity to rush through his lymphatic system. And here’s the important piece of information that our movie star withheld, said Hamblin, who serves Deer Springs Fire District residents: “The only treatment for a rattlesnake bite is antivenin.” And because antivenin is so expensive, it is not in a paramedic’s medicine bag, so the solution is to call 9-1-1 to get immediate medical care and transportation to the hospital. “Don’t apply a tourniquet. Don’t suck out the venom. Don’t use leeches,” said Hamblin. “It’s already in the lymphatic system. Either call 9-1-1 or have someone drive you directly to the hospital.” The advantage to calling 9-1-1 is that paramedics have pain medication, and a snakebite can be extremely painful. Hamblin advises drawing a circle around the limit of the swelling with a Sharpie and marking the time, so when you arrive at the hospital nurses can track the swelling. Rattlesnakes are among the worst threats out there, but bees, wasps, scorpions and spiders — especially black widows and brown recluses — are lurking in your wood pile, gardening shed and garage, waiting for the exact moment to pounce. OK, maybe that’s not exactly true, but Hamblin advises taking bites and stings seriously. Just because you’ve been stung by a bee before doesn’t mean that there’s no chance of you having a severe reaction and going into anaphylactic shock, he said. “Sometimes a bee sting will trigger it,” he says.