About Cambria

According to the documentation provided for this Thursday’s Cambria Community Services District meeting, the District will bring in nearly $40,000 to cover the administrative costs of a program to reduce fuel on vacant properties and reduce the potential fire danger in Cambria. An inventory of 102 properties that are listed this year,  94 of which will be charged a $400 administration fee. The costs for clearing will also be charged to those property owners. Those fees range from $59 to a little over $4,000. Some other interesting trivia gleaned from CCSD records:

Number of properties in 2009 charged under $200 for the clearing: 58

Number of properties in 2008 charged under $200 for the clearing: 54

Number in 2009 charged more than $400: 26

Number in 2008 charged more than $400: 11

Number of  properties in 2009 charged $0 for clearing and a $65 admin fee: 8

Number of  properties in 2008 charged only $50: 17

Number of properties deemed not cleared in 2009 that are on the CCSD water wait list: 14

Number not on the CCSD wait list: 88

Number of Lots determined in violation in 2008: 107

Number deemed not cleared in 2008 that are on the CCSD wait list: 15

Number of lots fined in both 2008 and 2009: 42

Number of lots on the CCSD wait list fined in both 2008 and 2009: 5

Pretty sneaky sis! Want to be the winner every time? Here’s the formula:

1. Describe and then embellish a potential threat to the status quo.The threat can be real or imaginary or somewhere in between, but it must cause fear and it must be a threat that an individual could not eliminate on his or her own. (“Out of Your Hands Entirely” or “Catastrophic Acts of God” are frequently used brands)
2. Add off and on periods of heightened threat punctuated times of safety.
3. Promise to make those brief stable periods the status quo and eliminate the threat. If you’ve done it right, you will find a populace willing to suppress their own self-interest and will unquestioningly do whatever it takes to carry out your plan…whatever it might be.

How can you argue against something that will reduce a threat to life and property? It is easy to use fear to control those who would otherwise oppose you. And if you’ve manufactured the fear, it’ll be even easier for you to ride to the rescue. I mean, no one wants to be the guy who said, “Calm down! Terrorists won’t attack again” just as the terrorists are striking again and we are caught unprepared. To appeal to people’s fear in order to eliminate opposition is SO 20th century, and SO manipulative and creepy.

An example right here in Cambria:

1. Describe and then embellish a potential threat to the status quo. (Cambria catches fire. First one house, then another, and another, then the trees carry it to another, and so on. Cambria doesn’t have the water to battle fire.)
2. Add off and on periods of heightened threat punctuated with brief safe times. (There’s a built-in period of reduced threat (in winter) and the start of each fire season is lionized every year. )
3. Promise to make those brief stable periods the status quo and eliminate the threat. First, the storage in new Pine Knolls water tanks, now the Stuart street tanks and the pumps at the Rodeo Grounds, toss in a lot clearing ordinance and defensible space laws and Hallelujah!

Are you scared yet? Whenever someone is appealing to you fear (or other emotion) it activates your sense of self-preservation and your “emotional brain”. Your logical mind is suppressed and your thinking becomes more conservative. Drew Westin discusses his studies on this phenomenon at great length in his excellent book The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation (July 2007) Subtly remind people of their own mortality and their subconscious pulls their opinions toward a more conservative view of the world. Westin asserts the best weapon against this form of manipulation is inoculation. In other words, call it what it is: using our emotions to manipulate us. (I highly recommend Westin’s book. Read a well-written review of it at the DailyKos blog. )  Using your fear to control you is powerless when you recognize what’s being done.

CCSD using Fear? According to the previous Board, this town has been in a state of emergency for decades. The District keeps us on constant vigilant watch, providing weekly measurements and comparison charts that show how desperate the situation is. There’s hardly a moment we aren’t reminded of our deficient water supply. How much storage do we need? The recently released Resource Management System report from the County actually removed the highest severity Level 3 for Cambria’s water system, since the Pine Knolls tanks are now in service. Chief Miller and his trained personnel likely have many game plans for many of the possible scenarios involving home fires in town. That seems like a defining task of his job. I have confidence that between CalFire and our local Fire Department, they will manage the water available to do their job in an emergency. More water would be nice. So would having our own helicopter with water bucket. But we aren’t without protection now.

Know the facts. Cambria is one of the most well-protected forested areas in this state. It’s a difficult environment to defend from fire. We maintain mutual aid agreements with Calfire and other nearby fire departments, have well-trained firefighters, and relatively new equipment. Are there deficiencies? Probably. But I feel confident we are well protected in case of emergency.

The new threat: Growth. With “enough” water storage for our emergency fire protection needs, look to see the formula applied to GROWTH and development more aggressively. (More on this next week.)

Cambria’s Fire Department is offering another C.E.R.T. training this coming February. The Community Emergency Response Team (aka CERT) training is a 20-hour “hands-on” course that teaches individuals to be better prepared in the event of a major disaster, and to form into effective
neighborhood teams to assist others. In the CERT training class you will learn about how and when to turn off your Utilities; Firefighting skills;
Medical skills; Hazardous Materials & Terrorism awareness; light Search and Rescue techniques; and most importantly, you’ll learn SELF
RELIANCE.

Anyone interested is asked to call the Fire Department (6240) to register before February 18, 2009.  The fee for the 5 evening course is $40.00, which includes materials.  This time the course will be held at 6pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays over 3 weeks – beginning Thursday, February 19, 2009.  Visit the CCSD website for more information and a flyer.

As we all know the CCSD requires property owners to abate the weeds, downed trees, brush etc which might constitute a fire hazard. This must be done by July 1st or the work is put out to a private contractor. The cost of such work is added to the property tax bill along with a (haha gotcha) $400.00 “administrative” charge.

Well, it seems that the CCSD has gathered up 44 properties in their Build-out Reduction program and lo and behold they have determined that it is too expensive to clear their own lots. They have cleared a few inadequatly and others not at all. How this can be done legally while requiring it of others is troubling. (Lawsuits in the event of a fire) This has resulted in an increase in an always dangerous fire environment. I have taken pictures of a representative group of those lots – included below. The list of lots and comments can be downloaded here.

I have shared this information with the Cambrian with the expectation they would be interested in looking into this further but with no results. Hence this missive.

Yours for a fire safe community,

Reg Perkins

Update: Lot on Ramsey Original Picture:

Updated as of today (Sept 29):

Perhaps we can get San Luis Obispo County to give Cambria Fire Department a grant to buy gel that Cambria Residents Can spray on their homes. It is available. It works. Does Cambria F.D. have any gel they can use on their trucks?

The CCSD is good at getting grants….maybe they could get a grant for Fire Retardant Gel for the community.

While I applaud the efforts of the Fire Department, and their dedication to our safety, I wonder if I would be better protecting my house from burning down in a forest fire in Cambria if I had spent the $800.00 I paid ( for whacking down the forest floor on my property) on Fire Retardant Gel? Perhaps instead of more water tanks around town for Cambria firefighting, we could invest in some fire retardant gel systems. I think we could buy a LOT of gel for the cost we pay for water tanks.

Any thoughts, or experience with the gel?

You can also buy your own gel Barricade Home Kit

Complete Four 1-gallon containers with garden hose applicator and instructional DVD$685 ORDER ON LINE

Barricade Fire Gel has saved hundreds of homes in the United States

Barricade is now available to homeowners who can apply the water/gel coating on their own property in front of an approaching wildfire, before retreating to a safe area. When mixed with water at the end of a garden hose…

New Fire-Retardant Gel Can Save Homes

“Gel is a 21st-century tool. It has to become a mainstay of the fire service, and it’s not yet,” Waggoner said.

10-09-2007

By JOE KAFKA
Associated Press Writer

HOT SPRINGS, S.D. –

It was the most intense fire ever recorded in the Black Hills National Forest, but nearly all homes coated with a slimy gel were saved while dozens of houses nearby burned to the ground.

The gel was a super-absorbent polymer that can hold many times its weight in water and clings well to vertical surfaces and glass. It is mixed with water and then can be sprayed on homes with a truck-mounted hose or a backpack apparatus, or dropped from a plane.

The substance is relatively new to firefighting, having been developed about a decade ago, and is not widely used. But some firefighters who have tried it are impressed, saying it offers longer-lasting protection than the foam retardants that have been around for many years.

“This stuff really works,” Ed Waggoner of Reno, Nev., a retired California fire boss who now helps direct attacks on large forest fires in the Black Hills. “We’re talking about a water bubble that you put on your house two or three hours before the fire gets there, and it’ll save it when the fire gets there.”

Sabo has developed a $12,000-to-$20,000 gel system that can be attached to fire trucks and recently has begun to sell it to fire departments. (By comparison, a compressed-air foam system for a fire truck, which is what most fire departments use to protect homes, costs about $80,000.)

Read the rest of the article here.

As nearly everyone is certainly aware, a major fire is burning a little over 45 miles north of Cambria. Highway One has been closed for at least two weeks and Cambria Fire Chief Putney has been leading a strike team for almost two weeks. According to a 6AM update at Surfire2008.org today, over 72,000 acres have burned and the fire is only 11% contained. There are 2,320 personnel currently fighting this fire and only 3 injuries so far. Surfire2008.org is being updated “officially” twice a day, but is acting as a communication source and bulletin board for locals, so there are posts being put up throughout the day by many in the community.

Anyone visiting the site can see updates on the fire fighting efforts as well as needs and offers to help. Of particular interest to Cambrians should be the pages where people can offer housing or to volunteer and the pages listing needs for housing or volunteers.

For other official fire information, visit the County of Monterey’s Fire Information page. To see a map updated yesterday of the Indians and Big Sur Fires, Click Here. See the change in the affected areas, check out this image from July 1 and July 3.

For information more current, but unofficial, visit the surfire2008.org blog first, then go visit Xasáuan Today, which is continuing to update a back country photo tour of the areas affected by the fire (pre-fire). KUSP radio also has been keeping a great web resource updated regularly. Below is a Google Earth image of the fire details from this morning.

There are many opportunities for people to give their help or financial support to those who are directly affected by these fires. I suggest visiting surfire.org to find out what help is most needed. And keep all the firefighters and other emergency workers in your thoughts and prayers.

Are you prepared for a possible emergency here in Cambria? Visit the Fire Emergency Preparedness pages on the CCSD’s web site. Use the navigation links on the right to learn about preparing for evacuation or staying put if a fire like the one in the Big Sur area threatens our community.