[MarinTeams] Novato Marin Valley Mobile Country Club Fire
joseph deAvila
jdeavila13 at gmail.com
Fri Oct 7 17:07:57 EDT 2016
I worked on a email with photos and important comments all day. It got so
large that it wouldn't save. I wasn't able to slim it down and it finally
deleted itself. Poof! So here's the short version.
Not surprisingly, out of about 60 emergency volunteers in our community
there were about five people including myself that responded. We use
business band radios 2watts issued by CERTS. They work OK for our needs.
The few of us that had our radios were able to coordinated with police ad
fire personnel (at a minimal level) to assist with control traffic movement
and fully to alert residence to shelter in-place or to evacuate.
Fortunately the 20 acre fire was quickly controlled by the fire department
and there was no structural damage.
My ongoing practice with Marin Teams and my drills with our volunteers
helped me to remain calm (some what) and communicate clearly.
When I saw the wall of fire coming over the ridge where it started, my
first thought was, "well (sh**) this is serious" my second thought was get
my radio and do an assessment of all the dense vegetation around me.
Last but not least, first responders did a great job in this case, but
there aren't enough of them. Bill is right we'll have to be prepared to do
the heavy lifting in the long run. Communications skills and preparedness
was a real help for me.
KK6SCN, "OUT"
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