Oakland residents and fire officials draw parallels between the recent devastating fires in Los Angeles and the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm, emphasizing the importance of fire-resistant practices implemented since then.
Oakland residents and fire officials, watching the devastating images from Los Angeles this past week, say it serves as a stark reminder of the many changes they have implemented and the valuable lessons learned from the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm. 'It came over the crest,' Elizabeth Stage recalled on Monday. A longtime resident of the Oakland hills for 40 years, Stage vividly remembers the 1991 firestorm. 'The flames came within feet of my home,' she said.
Stage is the president of the Oakland Firesafe Council and emphasizes the strong partnership between the city and residents in making their community more fire-resistant. 'Annually, we are inspected by members of the fire department who come and make sure that we've cleared the brush, we've cleared the overhanging trees,' Stage explained. Along with defensible space, Stage highlights other crucial lessons in making homes more fire-resistant. She has replaced her redwood deck with metal railings and fire-resistant materials. The wood siding on her home is now covered with a special coating. 'It's got a coat of material over the siding that makes it less flammable,' she said. Stage stresses that even small changes, such as finer mesh to prevent embers from entering vents and CalFire-approved, double-paned windows, can significantly reduce fire risk. 'Windows are rated for their resistance to flying embers,' Stage emphasized. 'It really is a collaboration and a partnership with our community to make sure we're a fire-safe city,' Oakland Fire Chief Damon Covington affirmed. 'The collaboration across our region, as we saw in the Keller Fire, everyone is ready to respond to a major incident no matter where it is in the region. I don't think we had that in 1991.' Covington further explained, 'We train the same way across the county. We use the same equipment across the county. That's some of the issues that we had that we learned from the 1991 fire.' New city council member Zac Unger, a former firefighter, underscored the relevance of the Los Angeles fires, emphasizing the year-round fire danger in California and the need for Oakland to find budget solutions to prevent temporary fire station closures. 'I was a firefighter until about two weeks ago. I fought the Keller fire a few months ago,' Unger shared. 'We are a very vulnerable area. We have built deeply into the wildland urban interface and we need to make sure we have the resources both to prevent fires and then also to attack them when they happen,' Unger stressed. Covington expressed his gratitude to Oakland residents for passing Measure MM last November, a 20-year special tax to support wildfire safety measures. The chief explained that it will generate approximately $3 million, although the funds won't be available until July and won't help with the temporary fire station closures. He stated that the measure will be used as part of a 10-year vegetation management plan, focusing on removing dangerous trees and brush.
WILDFIRES OAKLAND CALIFORNIA FIRE SAFETY COMMUNITY PREPAREDNESS LESSON LEARNED FIRE DEPARTMENT VEGETATION MANAGEMENT HOME HARDENING
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