By The deadly and destructive Northern California wildland fires over the past decade were a stunning wakeup call for Marin residents, many of whom had friends and family who lost their homes in those blazes.
For years, Marin firefighters would return from fighting on the front lines of wildland fires in other parts of the state with warnings that it could happen here.
We’ve had wildland fires, though none of the historic and destructive proportions seen in neighboring counties.
But our terrain, numerous neighborhoods that border wildland areas and, in some cases, limited evacuation routes, are not that much different.
The thousands of acres, hundreds of homes and more than 100 lives lost in Tubbs and Camp fires alone raised awareness that more needed to be done to improve our odds of stopping fires.
Such work is underway right now in our open space areas where crews have been busy strategically removing grass, shrubs and fallen trees and branches to reduce the so-called potential “fuel load” that could help a wildfire spread and grow in intensity.
It’s grueling work, but vital in bolstering public safety.
Soon these will be joined by four 16-person crews.
Marin Municipal Water District crews have also been busy, working to bring greater measures of safety to its wide-open lands
In 2020, Marin voters set this community priority with more than 70% voting for passage of Measure C, a parcel tax that launched the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, which coordinates local wildfire protection and prevention efforts.
This initiative aims to make a big difference, not only by providing protection in open spaces, but increasing public awareness and participation in making homesites and business properties safer.
“We’re doing our part,” says Marin County Fire Chief Jason Weber. “The public needs to do theirs by creating defensible space around their homes. When every neighbor starts to do this, it creates a community resiliency, which is what we’re trying to build.”
The work is building on lessons learned from other fires.
There is no shortage of work as in many places the wildland fuel load has been growing for decades.
It has been nearly a century since Marin’s historic 1929 fire that destroyed 110 homes.
Today, that acreage has been rebuilt with even more homes, most often surrounded by dense blankets of trees and shrubs.
The oft-repeated warning from local fire officials is that if that same fire occurred today, its swath of damage could be much worse.
The stark evidence is the damage and loss of lives in Tubbs and Camp fires.
Crews are busy working to improve the odds that any wildland fires that start can be quickly contained.
It’s an investment in safety, one of providing commonsense safeguards to give firefighters a fighting chance and to help prevent a horrific wildland fire from gaining destructive intensity here.
