Look here for links to helpful resources and information to help you with fire safety.
Fire Prevention Resources
FireSafe Sonoma - The charter of this group is to educate, exchange information, foster fire prevention and fire safety practices, promote vegetation reduction projects, obtain grants, support local fire agency efforts and involve everyone who works, lives or plays in our rural areas. They publish “Living with Fire in Sonoma County” which is an excellent 15 page color brochure that has great information about defensible space, landscape design, and construction for our area. You can download it here: http://www.firesafesonoma.org/
Ready Glen Ellen - This website has information for Glen Ellen to prepare for an emergency situation. You can see emergency guidelines, livestock and pet evaluations, checklists, and more.
Free Chipping Program - Sonoma County has a free chipping program. Learn more at sonomacounty.ca.gov
Pre-Evacuation Checklist - Here is the checklist. It is not what to bring with you, but how to prepare your house so it can survive a fire and help firefighters save your property.
Hydrant Design Details - Download the county document that shows the suggested placement and design for your hydrant here
Xeriscape Gardening and Fire Resistant Plants - Learn about Xeriscape (low water) gardening here
Here is a list of water wise & fire resistant plants from the Diablo Fire Safe Council. It contains those plants that were recommended for use in fire prone environments by at least 3 references. All of the plants listed here were given either a high or moderate fire resistance rating in the references where a rating was assigned.
Fire Incident Resources - Updated 8/2020
Use these online resources to track wildfires and generally find out what is going on with fires in our area. Things like fire perimeter and location info is hard to come by, especially at the beginning of an event. These links help you figure out what is going on. Click here to download a document with these links.
Flight Radar 24 – The fire planes circle the fire location. (Daytime only and assuming there are planes available). www.flightradar24.com
#FireMappers – A crowd sourced fire location map service. Good for initial fire locations search for #Firemappers on google and click the link - their URL sucks
National Interagency Fire Center – Fire Perimeters (usually 1 day old) and Satellite Data (Modis, VIIRS which update every few hours). Turn on the satellite data in the layers to see the most recent hot spots and track fire progress https://maps.nwcg.gov/sa/#/%3F/%3F/38.5321/-122.1561/9
Cal Fire – The incidents page on the Cal Fire site is usually updated daily. You can see resources committed and evacuations. The data is daily, and things can change fast between updates.https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/
Wildfire Cameras – Awesome mountaintop views. Navigate to the North Bay and then select cameras to see views of the fires http://www.alertwildfire.org/northbay/index.html?v=81e004f
Purple Air – See the air quality in your area. Also good for figuring out where the smoke plumes are from fires. https://www2.purpleair.com
Scanners – Monitor the fire situation live.
Search for and listen to Cal Fire LNU East or Cal Fire LNU West
Web – Broadcastify.com
App - 5-0 Radio (available on the app store along with many others)
Twitter – Good real time fire info from a variety of sources. Follow these people:
CA Fire Scanner @CAFireScanner
Daniel Swain @Weather_West
National Weather Service @NWSBayArea
Sarah Stierch. @Sarah_Stierch (Sarah really kicks in on larger events)
Cal Fire @CAL_FIRE
Cal Fire LNU @CALFIRELNU (Daily video briefings)
County of Sonoma @CountyofSonoma
Post-Fire Resources
Post Fire Tree Recovery
Other Resources
Cal Fire / CDF:
If a fire breaks out, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (aka CDF or Cal Fire) is the agency that has responsibility for fighting the fire. The MVFD is the first responder to any fire in our area and our volunteers work with Cal Fire once they arrive on the scene and take command. The Cal Fire web site covers many topics from defensible space to current fire incidents. You can access this information at the following web site: http://www.fire.ca.gov/
If there is a fire in the area, and Cal Fire is involved, you can get the latest information on size and containment at this web site:http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_current
YouTube:
There is an excellent video on Utube called “Controlling Nature's Wrath”. It has some stunning (and sobering) fire footage, and covers fire safety in California from many angles. You can view the video here
Earthquake Preparedness.
Download the Red Cross Earthquake Preparedness checklist here
Download the excellent handbook from the US Geological Survey here (large: 5MB)
Scanner frequencies
Download this PDF file for a list of local frequencies used for emergency response. You can also monitor Sonoma County Fire radio traffic at www.RadioReference.com. Click on the Live Audio Feeds button to the left of the page.