The North County Times published two articles on regional preparedness over the weekend.
The first: "Region: Officials say region much better prepared to stop wildfires" focused on how the region has more resources in place to help fight a fire.
"We have more firemen, more equipment and better training," said Ralph Steinhoff, fire services coordinator for San Diego County, which provided money to rural fire districts to buy 30 new fire engines. "We have better coordination, and we've adddressed almost everything that was identified as presenting an opportunity for improvement."
A second article, "Region: County is better prepared for evacuations, officials say" looks to improvements in the regional emergency evacuation procedures.
As the region rides out another wildfire season, officials say San Diego County is better prepared to evacuate people from harm's way than it was during the devastating fire storms in 2003 and 2007 ---- a good thing because a survey shows that one out of five backcountry residents ignored evacuation orders in 2007.
Since those two wildfires, the county developed a regional evacuation plan outlining evacuation routes and potential shelters, improved coordination among law enforcement and transportation agencies, and installed systems that call residents at home and on their cell phones to warn of an emergency.
"Certainly, since 2003, we've done tremendous improvements," said Ron Lane, director of the county's Office of Emergency Services, which coordinates evacuations during emergencies when multiple jurisdictions are involved.
To read the entire articles, click on the article names to be directed to the North County Times web site.
