The following is a message from Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall published on the agency’s Facebook page:
I wanted to reach out to the public and discuss the recent Broiler Fire incident, which occurred in Redwood Valley.
I was very happy with the response to this incident. Our personnel worked with state and local fire agencies and with the public to serve the community.
We did lose some homes and structures, however we suffered no loss of life. This incident was a tragedy due to the loss of homes and property and I truly feel for those folks that suffered a loss.
Please understand with several fire events in the recent past where we have seen loss of life and devastation of entire neighborhoods this could have been much worse.
Deputies arrived on scene within one minute of being called, allied agencies including the Highway Patrol, Ukiah and Willits Police Departments also responded along with a detail of Mendocino County Probation Officers who responded the moment they were called upon.
We all worked together to meet the needs of the communities.
The residents in this area carried the load along with the fire and law enforcement personnel during a very stressful time. Residents headed the warnings, and immediately went into action moving out of the affected areas.
The response by our residents was outstanding and it is clear we have all been empowered through education. This is what happens when we partner with each other and our communities.
Upon arrival we worked with the state and local fire agencies to develop alerts and messaging. Officers and deputies went door to door using Hi-Lo sirens, making notifications and assisting residents in leaving the affected areas.
We were able to assist with gathering pets and livestock, and assisted with hitching up trailers to help with the evacuations.
This being said we always have to look at what we did well and what we can do better.
Our alert and warnings prompted a lot of discussion following this incident. I was asked along with the Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services Coordinator to speak during public comment regarding the messaging which accompanied response.
During this discussion it appeared there were two areas of concern. Persons who didn’t receive the alert within the area affected and persons who didn’t receive alerts outside of the affected areas.
I would like to address these issues.
As we investigated the we found several people who didn’t receive the notifications weren’t properly registered with the alert and warning systems. Persons who had previously registered in other locations in the county however hadn’t changed their registration to the current address.
The second area of concern which was the size of the area which was alerted.
The alert and warnings were directed at residents that could immediately be effected by the fire.
These were the residents that we were asking to take immediate action. These were the residents we were concerned could be injured.
The reason the alerts weren’t sent to all of the Ukiah and Redwood Valley area was because we have to strike a balance notifying those affected and not over running our dispatch centers.
We have seen in the past, our dispatch center completely over run with calls from concerned citizens, if we receive calls from folks miles away who are not affected it takes our time and energy away from those who are affected.
There has to be a balance.
We all have concerns any time a fire breaks in Mendocino County. In the future we hope to be sending out messaging to a broader area and we are working to find the balance in our messaging.
The messaging has to be for those affected in the footprint of the event as well as messaging for situational awareness to those who are outside of the event, however are concerned. In order to effectively complete this, I ask those who receive messaging for situational awareness to read the entire message and use it as intended.
Let’s be careful not to inundate our dispatch center with calls for clarity if your area isn’t affected.
I would also encourage everyone to follow our twitter, facebook, and mendoready.org accounts for information as it is coming in. Please take the time to review and update your registration with the alerting platforms.
If you move please remember these are often dependent on the location or zip code you are registered in. This is a tool which helps us to help you.
Lastly let’s always work together to find the common areas in which we can support each other. Let’s take our successes and continue to build from them as we move forward in Mendocino County.
We are in unprecedented times where we all need to look out for each other. Every problem is also an opportunity to learn and move forward with better communication and resiliency.
Thank you.
Sheriff Matt Kendall
