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CA Officials Drop 'Stay and Defend' Policy
(AP) DIAMOND BAR, Calif.
With fire season approaching, fire officials in Southern California have unveiled a program that focuses on prevention and early evacuation.
Fire officials from eight agencies held a press conference Wednesday in Diamond Bar to announce their "Ready, Set, Go" policy. It's a move away from the stay-and-defend strategy that agencies were considering a few months ago in which homeowners would be trained to defend their homes from stray embers.
Related
That tactic came under scrutiny in February after a wildfire killed more than 200 people in Australia, where fire authorities have encouraged homeowners to defend their properties from blazes.
Fire agencies in Southern California are now encouraging residents to build defensible space around homes and evacuate when ordered.
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Information from: The Orange County Register, http://www.ocregister.com
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
With fire season approaching, fire officials in Southern California have unveiled a program that focuses on prevention and early evacuation.
Fire officials from eight agencies held a press conference Wednesday in Diamond Bar to announce their "Ready, Set, Go" policy. It's a move away from the stay-and-defend strategy that agencies were considering a few months ago in which homeowners would be trained to defend their homes from stray embers.
Related
- Fire officials shift from 'Stay and Defend' to 'Ready, Set, Go'
- 'Ready, Set, Go' Your Personal Wildfire Action Plan
That tactic came under scrutiny in February after a wildfire killed more than 200 people in Australia, where fire authorities have encouraged homeowners to defend their properties from blazes.
Fire agencies in Southern California are now encouraging residents to build defensible space around homes and evacuate when ordered.
___
Information from: The Orange County Register, http://www.ocregister.com
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Nic Campbell on
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In Victoria post our Feb 7th fires and the 178 civilian deaths ( the same series of fires mentioned in the article) we are now conducting a Royal Inquest. One of the issues is leave early or stay and defend. Most of the deceased were found inside or just outside of their homes. We have never encouraged people to stay, but have said that if you can't safely defend your property then leave very early. It was not solely the fault of our current policy as the article suggests, but also the conditions we had to work under... Four other major Blazes across the state and the extreme Fire behavior (eg Grass fires running at upwards of 200 k/ph) which contributed to such a high toll.
This policy will hopefully have been reviewed before the beginning of our next Fire Season in seven months! I Reckon that we will be watching very closely how effective the new California policy will be!
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