Prepared: Learn from the locals who are ready for the next natural disaster

The first rain of the season always brings a distinct wave of scents with it, and in the yard of Renee O’Neill’s Tepusquet Canyon home, the flat smell of ash emanated from the hillside.

The hilltop behind her home was stained black, the result of the Alamo Fire’s southernmost spread through Tepusquet. The fire, which started on July 6, 2017, burned more than 28,000 acres before it was contained by the response from federal, state, and local agencies later that month.

click to enlarge Prepared: Learn from the locals who are ready for the next natural disaster
PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM
READY FOR ANYTHING: Renee O’Neill and her family take many measures to make sure their property is prepared for a wildfire, that they’re ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice, and can leave their resources accessible to fire crews.

The fire burned through dry and brush-filled hillsides. Only one residence was destroyed and another building along with it, which O’Neill attributes to how prepared Tepusquet Canyon’s residents are for wildfires. She’s a board member for the Fire Associates for the Community of Tepusquet (FACT), a community coalition that educates about fire safety and preparedness in the canyon.

A quick scan of O’Neill’s property reveals some of the ways her home is equipped to withstand a fire as threatening as the Alamo. There are sprinklers on the roof, wire mesh wrapped around her raised porch, and a red fire hydrant with a long hose equipped to fill tankers or fire tenders. There’s also a dusty, decommissioned fire engine parked next to a garage, more of a tinkering project for her husband than a serious measure against wildfires, she said.

But staying prepared for wildfires takes more than just buying the right equipment or tools. It’s lots of work year round, O’Neill said, like mowing down dry brush to keep a perimeter of defensible space around her home.

“The canopies of oak trees operate as a cover, so that when fire is coming through, it will generally roll over the tops,” she said. “But out in the wild area, that area is more susceptible to burning because it’s got brush and little things that are going to burn up.”

Prepared: Learn from the locals who are ready for the next natural disaster
MAKE YOUR KIT: Aware and Prepare recommends “Ready Kits” that include essentials like food, water, a can opener, emergency radio, a flashlight with batteries, a first-aid kit, whistles, dust masks, plastic sheeting, wet napkins, and important documents. Ready kits can also include prescription medications, glasses, cash or traveler’s checks, diapers, changes of clothes, and blankets. More info is available at awareandprepare.org.

The manageable amount of dry brush on O’Neill’s property made it easy for fire crews to back-burn from the tree line around her house. Today, a ring of green oak trees signifies her property line, and the hillside of dead, charred trees illustrate the danger of unmanaged brush in wooded areas, called a “fuel ladder” by firefighters.

O’Neill is FACT’s liaison with the Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council, and for years she’s used some of the Council’s best advice to prepare her home and community for its biggest natural threat. That includes both readying her property and having an evacuation plan, but also making it easier for fire crews to combat fires in Tepusquet.

Much of the preparation for wildfires applies to other disasters, like mudslides or earthquakes. Basics like having a plan, practicing it, and keeping a disaster kit make all the difference, O’Neill said, and all are important for urban and rural residents alike to know and implement. But for locals like O’Neill who call rural areas home, having the know-how, technology, and plans to protect property and safety from natural threats is a necessity. 

Be prepared

Santa Barbara County Fire Department Public Information Officer Mike Eliason spoke with the Sun from Montecito on Jan. 10, where emergency response crews were performing search and rescue operations amid the aftermath of the deadly mudslide that occurred there on Jan. 9.

click to enlarge Prepared: Learn from the locals who are ready for the next natural disaster
PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM
WATER SOURCE: The fire hydrant on Renee O’Neill’s property is in plain view and is accessible to more than one hose at a time, she explained, including one that fire crews filled up tankers from while fighting the Alamo Fire.

The area of Montecito hit by the rushing wall of water, mud, and debris had been under an evacuation order from Santa Barbara County the day prior to the mudslide. The weather forecast of heavy rain paired with the burnt hillsides caused by the Thomas Fire also spurred evacuation orders and warnings in more of Montecito, Summerland, and Carpinteria.

“When there’s any kind of evacuation order or warning, either mandatory or voluntary, we don’t take those charges lightly,” Eliason said. “We don’t like displacing people, and we want them to heed those warnings because there is a real reason why we’re giving those. People need to heed those warnings and try to get out as best they can as quickly as they can.”

But in order to even be able to evacuate quickly and effectively, a series of plans and preparations must be made, Eliason said.

“You have to be ready, have a plan in place, have everything backed up on the cloud, have all your important documentation … have all that ready to go. Talk to your family, have a plan, have an out-of-area contact that you can go to,” he said.

Prepared: Learn from the locals who are ready for the next natural disaster
LEARN ONLINE: Fire safety and disaster preparedness information is available on the Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council’s website at sbfiresafecouncil.org and the Wildland Residents Association’s website at wildlandresidents.org. Notifications and info are available through Aware and Prepare at awareandprepare.org.

Evacuation is the third step in the Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council’s “Ready! Set! Go!” plan, which outlines how local residents can best prepare for wildfires, and by proxy, other natural disasters.

The first step, signified by the word “ready,” involves preparation and planning done in order to evacuate quickly and leave property protected and available to first responders. Buying emergency supply kits, keeping up-to-date fire extinguishers, and having a portable radio or scanner for live updates is all suggested.

Most important is having an evacuation plan agreed on and even practiced by everyone in a household or family, Eliason said.

“Things don’t always happen at 3 o’clock on a Friday when you are home,” he said. “You have to have a plan in place and make sure your entire family knows the situation.”

click to enlarge Prepared: Learn from the locals who are ready for the next natural disaster
PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM
READY TO DEFEND: Linda Tunnell’s home in Tepusquet Canyon is surrounded by yards of what firefighters call “defensible space,” which is open space free of ignitable vegetation.

Ted Adams, the vice chair of the Fire Safe Council, is brimming with information on how to prepare to evacuate. Some tips are more obvious, like video taping the possessions in your home for insurance purposes or having your important papers in a fireproof portfolio close to a main exit. Others are subtler, like parking your car with the front facing towards the road, so a hasty exit is less likely to include a collision with another evacuating neighbor.

“The main thing is to just use common sense,” he said. “Don’t wait for someone to tell you to leave your home. As soon as you start getting uncomfortable, pack your car and get out of there.”

Staying connected and informed is important too, he explained, whether through emergency alerts online, or over the phone or radio waves.

For members of an isolated community like Tepusquet Canyon, staying connected with neighbors is incredibly important as well. O’Neill and her friend Linda Tunnell began FACT as a way to connect everyone in the canyon via a phone tree and email list. When the Alamo Fire hit, there was a hierarchy of response and notification that was spurred thanks to plans FACT had set up.

As soon as the fire began to spread, and residents were notified, evacuation plans kicked into gear, Tunnell explained.

“I was so proud of our canyon,” she told the Sun in July. “Friday afternoon, I’m seeing horse trailers, people moving, and you know they were really taking it seriously. They had a plan, and they were doing it.” 

Protecting property

The second part of Ready! Set! Go! includes a checklist of what to do when preparing a property before evacuation. How you “get set” helps first responders protect your property after you leave, Adams said.

click to enlarge Prepared: Learn from the locals who are ready for the next natural disaster
PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM
BACKUP PLANS: Renee O’Neill’s roof is equipped with a sprinkler system that can wet her house and the perimeter surrounding it.

Turning off natural gas, clearly marking water sources, leaving doors unlocked, and shutting off air conditioning should be part of a checklist that’s followed before evacuation, according to the Fire Safe Council’s website. Awareness of everything in and around your home can be helpful as well, Adams explained.

“There’s lots of little things that are interesting that don’t show up sometimes,” Adams said. “One of my favorites is that people should bring in their plastic lawn furniture and plastic waste containers and put them in their garage or their homes because those things will blow up against the side of the house with a fire-generated wind and, if and when they burn, it’s like throwing a 5-gallon tank of gasoline up against your house.”

Other modifications to a home can make it safer, like covering vents or other openings with mesh to prevent embers from getting inside, Adams explained.

Tepusquet Canyon has earned itself the title of a model fire safe community thanks to the efforts of FACT in educating and implementing many of the Fire Safe Council’s suggestions. When the county completed the Tepusquet Road Bridge in 2011, it was dedicated to O’Neill and Tunnell for their efforts in making Tepusquet a safer place to live.

click to enlarge Prepared: Learn from the locals who are ready for the next natural disaster
PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM
BUILD TO PROTECT: Certain design choices for a home work better to withstand wildfires, such as the adobe tile roof at Linda Tunnell’s house.

Tunnell’s house serves as a model example of a fire safe home as well. Surrounded by yards of open defensible space, the home has an adobe brick roof, stucco walls, and mesh-covered storm drains and air vents. She has fire-retardant gel at the ready to coat on her propane tank, water tanks, and wooden parts of her home.

She also has pumping equipment in her garage, ready to be pulled out into the yard and left near her water well for fire crews. During the Alamo Fire, a big, blue-lettered sign read “Water, H20!” in her driveway, and her water source was marked on a map of the canyon that FACT shares with fire crews.

A lot of the preparation is regular upkeep of the property as well, Tunnell said, whether it’s mowing tall brush or clearing out fallen oak limbs.

“It’s a constant thing; it’s not just doing your stuff just before summer or during spring,” Tunnell said. “It’s a year round thing when you live here.

“The better prepared you are, the more you have to come back to, period,” she added. 

Remember the whole family

It’s all too easy for a pet to become alarmed and attempt to bolt to safety during a wildfire or other natural disaster, Santa Barbara County Animal Services Outreach Coordinator Stacy Silva told the Sun. That’s why Animal Services recommend that locals include their pets in disaster prep plans.

“The best thing that we can do as community members, but especially as pet owners, is be prepared,” Silva said. “The most important things that people can do is prepare a kit for their animals. Many people have a disaster kit for their families, but that kit may not include things like pet food or potential prescription drugs their animals might need.”

click to enlarge Prepared: Learn from the locals who are ready for the next natural disaster
PHOTO BY JAYSON MELLOM
HAVE A PLAN: Part of Linda Tunnell’s evacuation plan includes leaving her water pump equipment outside, where it’s available to fire crews.

Silva will lead an informational talk at That’s Fetch in Orcutt later this month, detailing how to include pets in disaster plans and other steps to take. She said that people who live in rural and urban areas should all have evacuation plans that include their pets.

But that’s not enough, she explained. People actually need to practice the plan with their pets, she said. The practice is meant to prevent panic during an actual evacuation.

“We have a deep connection to our animals, and that’s why we care so much. And as our emotions run high, it is easier for our animals to get more agitated or go into hiding in that fight or flight mode because they can tell that something is going on,” she said. “It is important that we practice the plan and that it’s almost second nature when it comes to having to evacuate.”

For rural areas like Tepusquet Canyon or parts of the Santa Ynez Valley affected by the Whittier Fire, horses are part of the equation as well. It takes more time and prep to evacuate larger animals like horses, Silva said, so that’s why practice is important.

She relayed an anecdote about two neighbors who planned to evacuate their horses together, but had never practiced the plan. When it came time to evacuate for an emergency, the horses got loaded up safely, but the driver of the truck and trailer drove off without the other neighbor.

Prepared: Learn from the locals who are ready for the next natural disaster
PROTECT YOUR PETS: • Santa Barbara County agencies and equestrian groups will host the Equine Emergency Preparedness Expo on Jan. 20 at 9 a.m. at the Santa Ynez Valley Equestrian Center, 195 N. Refugio Road, Santa Ynez. The event is free to the public. More info: (805) 264-3422 or (805) 245-6727.
• That’s Fetch hosts a pet parenting class with Santa Barbara County Animal Services Outreach Coordinator Stacy Silva giving the talk Be Prepared—Disaster Preparedness for Pets on Jan. 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the store, 3563 Skyway Drive, Santa Maria. Cost is $10. More info: (805) 361-0802.

Once animals are included in the plan, and the plan is practiced, locals should follow all the steps in Ready! Set! Go! Silva said.

“I think that the best advice in those situations is heed evacuation warnings,” she said. “That’s the time that you need to start loading up your animals, or bring your cat inside, or secure them in a location so that they don’t have access to just run loose or run away from you.”

Silva said that the last year has changed how a lot of locals see the threat of natural disasters. They don’t feel as removed from wildfires or mudslides, she said, and they understand the risks of not being ready.

And pet owners don’t just hold their own safety in their hands, but that of their furry friends.

“I think we tend to turn our blinders on, that it’s not going to happen here in our community. But the reality is, no community is excluded from the damage that a wildfire or other disaster might bring,” she said. “The No. 1 piece of disaster preparedness advice is: Have a plan, talk to your neighbors, and make sure that your animals are not left behind.”

Contact Managing Editor Joe Payne at [email protected].

Renee O'Neill and Linda Tunnell were ready for the Alamo Fire when it came to Tepusquet Canyon last year. They head the Fire Associates for the Community of Tepusquet (FACT), a community coalition that educates about fire safety and preparedness in the canyon. They follow advice laid down by the Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council, which O'Neill is a liaison to for FACT. Their homes are surrounded by defensible space and equipped with sprinklers, and they have a sophisticated response plan to evacuate and leave their land ready for first responders.

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