If you’re anything like me, this recent surge of heat and wind has you spooked. And for good reason: Little brush fires have already started popping up in our area, like this one Sunday in the hills east of Santa Rosa. But there’s plenty we can do for peace of mind.
As county officials wrote in a recent newsletter: “Sonoma County’s rolling green hillsides are starting to turn golden brown, a visual cue that the hot, dry days of summer are right around the corner. As temperatures rise and our landscape dries out, it’s time to start getting ready for wildfire season.” The county’s Board of Supervisors even declared the month of May to be our official Wildfire Community Preparedness Month, in an effort to encourage “people who live in fire-prone areas” — aka, all of us — “to complete projects that can make their homes and communities safer.”
Here are some of the steps the county suggests:
- Unite with your neighbors. Form your neighborhood or homeowner’s association into a Firewise Community.
- Create defensible space around your home. Learn how here.
- If you are putting in new landscaping, consider making it fire-resilient to reduce your risk of wildfire.
- Assemble a go-bag and build an emergency preparedness kit. Learn how here.
- Make sure you are ready to evacuate if the time comes. Look up your evacuation zone. Make an evacuation plan.
- Get informed. Sign up for emergency alerts. Bookmark socoemergency.org, the official source for up-to-date information during an emergency.
- Don’t burn outdoors until you know the rules.
You should also download and turn on notifications for the Watch Duty fire-alert app, obviously — created by one of our own, rural Healdsburg resident John Clarke Mills! — and sign up for official Healdsburg-specific alerts via the Nixle platform. And on the defensible space front: Did you know that residents of unincorporated Sonoma County can get piles of brush, branches and other flammable planty stuff munged into wood chips by county crews, for free? Apply here.
Those of you living within town limits are still on the hook for keeping your property fire-safe, too: The Healdsburg Fire Department is currently conducting this year’s round of “weed abatement inspections,” according to a recent newsletter from City Manager Jeff Kay. His office writes: “It’s critical for property owners to be aware that this year may require multiple grass cuttings due to the abundant growth. Grasses are already beginning to brown, and that dry vegetation can quickly become a serious fire hazard as temperatures rise.”
Across the state, Cal Fire and local firefighting crews have likewise been doubling down on their large-scale version of grass-cutting this month: prescribed burns. There was a burn on private property out Mill Creek Road west of Healdsburg this past Thursday — “intended to remove invasive species within the Walbridge Fire scar and reduce future wildfire risk,” according to the county — and it won’t be the last around here.
The Northern Sonoma County Fire District, which protects the countryside to our north, also just finished forging an impressive new ridgetop “fuel break” between Geyser Peak and Pocket Peak in the Mayacamas Mountains east of Geyserville. It’s three miles long and up to 150 feet wide in places, and Fire Chief Marshall Turbeville explains in a new Cal Fire video that it has “strategic value” because “it separates the area to my east, Lake County, which is prone to offshore winds, from the area to my west, Santa Rosa-Windsor-Healdsburg… so this is one of those ridges where we can have a good chance of stopping or slowing a fire.” He says his team is now working to create additional fuel breaks nearby.
Another reason to stay calm and confident this fire season: Healdsburg’s new fire substation at the north of town is ready for action, near the Montage resort and North Village neighborhood, according to the agenda packet for the next Healdsburg City Council meeting this Tuesday. Councilmembers will discuss the station at their meeting, along with the city’s new wildfire mitigation plan for 2025 and Cal Fire’s updated “fire hazard severity zones” for our area. Might be a good one to listen in on!
Note from Simone: This piece originally appeared in the weekly email newsletter I write for the Healdsburg Tribune, called Healdsburg Today. Subscribe here!
