SANTA ROSA (KRON) — Santa Rosa’s Assistant Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal says this week’s power safety shutoff is the sixth one the city’s prepared for this year.
“We need rain — and until we have rain, we need our community to remain prepared to do what they can to make sure their house is prepared for potential wildfire,” Lowenthal said.
Residents need to begin preparing — once again — for the possibility of no power and dangerous fire conditions later this week with high winds expected
“We’re fortunate right now that the winds don’t look like they will push into the valley floors and should stay in the upper elevations,” he said. “That’s great, but regardless we still need our community prepared no matter what.”
Just like during the Kincade Fire last month, Lowenthal says the Santa Rosa Fire Department will be upstaffing once again with fire departments from around Sonoma County coming together to form strike teams and task forces this week.
He says rain is so desperately needed.
They thought it would be years before they saw another large scale fire after the Tubbs Fire in 2017.
But the Kincade Fire burned tens of thousands of acres in October and now the city is preparing once again for dangerous fire conditions
“Unfortunately we are getting very accustomed to these, but we are also making a lot of improvements with how we do business around Santa Rosa and the message we deliver to our community,” Lowenthal said.
It’s not only dry, but now it’s cold.
The fire department says if you are trying to cook a warm meal outside during the power shut off to make sure you are cooking away from trees and brush.