Fire safety

Supervisor Jim Desmond

5th District

Last week, I shared some successes and my vision for 2022, when it comes to behavioral health. This week, I want to share some of the accomplishments we've had in North County and talk about what I'm focused on when it comes to fire safety.

We have been fortunate in San Diego County to avoid major wildfires over the past few years, but we know risk in this region is constant. That is why we have made major improvements to evacuation routes and pre-fire strategies. Prevention is key, and we recently increased the frequency of defensible space inspections, enhanced pre-fire vegetation management, and improved pre-fire emergency planning with a greater emphasis on technology and GIS mapping.

I’m proud of the investments to strengthen fire safety in existing and future communities. We have assisted over 20,000 homeowners in achieving defensible space through community education.

Also, we have expanded the Heli-Hydrant program. A Heli-Hydrant is a pilot-controlled, remotely activated, 12-foot by 5-foot deep open tank that is only filled when needed. Heli-Hydrants are similar to an above-ground swimming pool that can be filled with approximately 5,000 gallons of water in 6 minutes. It will allow a firefighting helicopter to fill its water tank within a matter of seconds and return to the fire quickly.

On March 2, 2021, I partnered with Supervisor Joel Anderson on a Board Letter after hearing about problems associated with Public Safety, Power Shutoff events. This item passed with unanimous support and directed the chief administrative officer to identify gaps in Public Safety Power Shutdown mitigations and opportunities to further reduce the impact on the region.

Those are just a few items I'm working on when it comes to fire safety. If there's something you would like to see addressed, please email me at [email protected] and my office will get back to you shortly!