Threat of fire a constant

By: BETTY JOHNSTON - Staff Writer | Thursday, September 30, 2004 10:37 PM PDT ∞

Today is Oct.1, and it's probable everyone in the greater Fallbrook area knows that fire danger in San Diego County has been declared potentially higher than it was last October.

Moreover, Fallbrook is ranked by the state of California as a "Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone."

"Another fire, like or worse than the Gavilan fire (of 2002) is expected to hit Fallbrook at any time," Tracy Ragsdale of the Fallbrook Fire Safe Council said in a letter sent earlier this month to Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce members.

After last October's wildfires, the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services acknowledged the lack of community disaster plans for the county's unincorporated areas. That same county office in June requested that the Fallbrook Fire Safe Council host a community meeting. Volunteers who attended the meeting were asked to help put together a local Community Emergency Disaster Plan and the county provided them with a template.

"The plan requires both a timely response (the county would like to see it completed by October), and a very thorough and accurate presentation," Ragsdale said.

The plan the council has been working on includes an overall disaster plan for the Fallbrook, Bonsall, De Luz and Rainbow area; an evacuation plan; and a community vegetation abatement plan. The council also is being held responsible for publicizing and applying the plan it has been asked to develop.

"Additionally, this project will be an ongoing program, as the plan will have to be regularly updated and modified to meet the changing needs of Fallbrook," Ragsdale added in her letter.

Ragsdale's letter was written to plead a specific cause: "As OES lacks any budgetary resources for dissemination, education and physical application of the plan, the community of Greater Fallbrook must also be responsible for garnering financial resources to make the plan a reality." In other words, a few local volunteers have been mandated by San Diego County to stand between Fallbrook and devastation by fire with no financial help to do so.

Ragsdale pointed out, "Participation ... in the plan's development and implementation (must) be of critical import to the entire community."

The Fire Safe Council holds regular monthly meetings at 3 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month at Community Baptist Church, 731 S. Stage Coach Road. It would welcome additional volunteers. The next meeting will be Oct. 7. Anyone interested is asked to call Tracy Ragsdale at (760) 451-9848.

Contact Betty Johnston at (760) 731-6720 or (760) 451-5009, or at bjohnston@nctimes.com or johnston@nctimes.net. You may also read her column online at www.nctimes.com.

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