Make a Neighborhood Plan
A positive outcome of the recent years of fires has been neighbors reaching out to each other, getting to know who might need help in the event of an emergency, finding backup help to evacuate pets if someone is not at home, and many more wonderful ways we are becoming a closer community.
Gathering with neighbors you can do some critical things that no one can do on their own. Here are just a few:
- Create secondary egress routes in case your main road is blocked.
- Gather contact info and sign up for Safer West County’s auto-call system where anyone in your neighborhood can send out a message to the neighborhood if there is a critical local emergency.
- Identify who in your neighborhood might need help in an emergency and make sure they are resourced.
The Two Exit Rule
Every neighborhood should have two exits. (In case one way out is blocked by fire, there needs to be another emergency exit.) Because this may mean traversing private property — and getting through locked gates — each neighborhood needs to negotiate its backup exit. This is an important activity of any Fire Safe Group and an essential activity for any neighborhood.
Other Resources
SoCoEmergency has a list of Neighborhood Programs. Find the one that will work best for the community within which you live: https://socoemergency.org/get-ready/neighborhood-programs/
Reach out to your local Fire Safe Council to find out more about events and resources in your area here.