Diamond Springs Fire Safe Council

CALDOR FIRE GOT YOUR ATTENTION?!

Prevent them all or keep them small!

We are the Diamond Springs Fire Safe Council

(and your Neighbors) –
Working together, we can all be safer from Wildland Fire!

The Diamond Springs Fire Safe Council (DSFSC) was formed to reduce fire hazards and to assist the community in preparing for a wildland fire. The DSFSC works with the Diamond Springs – El Dorado Fire Protection District to maximize fire safety and minimize loss of life and property.

Hi Friends and Neighbors –  

Our goal is to promote fire safety and emergency preparedness.

For more information or to volunteer to help protect our community from wildfire, please visit our Facebook page:

Diamond Springs Fire Safe Council,

or email us at dsfsc21@gmail.com.

Keep scrolling for more information
WILDLAND FIRE IS THE GREATEST HAZARD IN DIAMOND SPRINGS!

There are three ways your home can be exposed to wildfire: (1) direct flames from a wildfire or burning neighboring home; (2) radiant heat from nearby burning plants or structures; and (3) flying embers. Flying embers from a wildfire can destroy homes up to a mile away and are responsible for the destruction of most homes during a wildfire.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

• Fire Prevention – this includes reducing vegetation that can burn from around your home, along roadways, and at strategic places called fire breaks.
• Home Hardening – Fire hardened means your home is prepared for wildfire and an ember storm. It does not mean fireproof. Home hardening addresses the most vulnerable components of your house with building materials and installation techniques that increase resistance to heat, flames, and embers that accompany most wildfires.
• Evacuation Preparedness – Do you know how to evacuate from your home? Are there alternate routes? Do you have an evacuation plan? Do you have an evacuation kit/bag in your vehicle? How About Your Pets?
• Volunteer Your Time! – The DSFSC needs community involvement to succeed. We need people that can:
UPCOMING DSFSC PROJECTS

Initial Projects: Establishment of Model Streets, creating Firewise communities, public community meeting with topics that concern all of us, green waste days, roadway vegetation clearance, firebreak creation/maintenance.

Future Projects: Vegetation clearance in Martinez Creek, community cleanup days, evacuation planning and signage.

By working together, we can reduce the potential for wildland fire and best protect our community if a fire occurs.

Message from Supervisor Wendy Thomas Delivered at the 9-9-21 Diamond Springs Fire Safe Council Meeting:

… Tonight, I applaud you in getting the Diamond Springs Fire Safe Council up and running. No doubt, fire and vegetation management is on the top of mind for everyone in our community, and your focused efforts will be critically important in the months and years ahead.

I know we share a collective grief over the devastation of Grizzly Flats and other areas of our County that were ravaged by the Caldor Fire. At the same time, I think we all recognize that we were abundantly blessed by the fierce dedication of the fire crews who went door-to-door, defending and protecting properties. They did the work that we should have done, and their efforts saved other communities from annihilation. May we take that lesson to heart and resolve to diligently manage our lands.

The good news is, there has already been many effective vegetation management efforts in the Diamond Springs area, and the work of the Patterson Ranch Fire Safe Council is inspiring and provides a solid framework to build on.
So thank you for your work on behalf of our community, and know that at the county level, we will also be focusing our attention on the proper management of our vast lands.

Wendy

Six South County Fire Safe Councils Awarded $2.1 million grant for Fuel Reduction, including Roadside Clearance and Shaded Fuel Breaks

The El Dorado County Fire Safe Council is executing a contract to improve fire evacuation safety and to enhance existing fuel break and create new fuel breaks as a means to minimize fire spread. More information to follow.

WHY BE A PART OF THE DIAMOND SPRINGS FIRE SAFE COUNCIL?

While there are few aspects of the Caldor Fire that are positive, we hope that the wild fire impacting all of our lives now will bring home the need to conduct effective prevention measures to protect our community and prepare for incidents to maximize life safety when fires do occur.

The best way to achieve these objectives is to work together as a community by being part of the

Diamond Springs Fire Safe Council.

Our initial focus issues are:

• Ensuring home addresses are easily identifiable for emergency personnel.
  • To jumpstart this effort, the Oak Hill Area Fires Safe Council has graciously offered to work with the DSFSC to make address signs for us until we can get up and running ourselves. Please go to their site to order your street address sign https://www.oakhillfiresafe.org/emergency-address-signs The Diamond Springs-El Dorado Fire Protection District (DSP) considers being able to easily identify street addresses as a crucial component of an effective response. Don’t delay the fire department responding to your home because they can’t find it.

• Conducting vegetation management at critical locations (e.g., ridgetops) as identified by the Diamond Springs-El Dorado Fire Protection District (DSP) to interrupt the spread of a wildland fire

• Conducting vegetation management along key ingress and egress routes to facilitate evacuation out of the area and allowing passage of emergency response vehicle

What do we need more than anything else?

We need strong community involvement.

Everyone has some talent, skill, or interest that can be of help to the DSFSC. Are you able to:

• Operate a chainsaw
• Work social media
• Write media releases and articles
• Do photography and video
• Be a “street captain”
• Speak Spanish and other languages
• Reach out to your neighbors
• Check on neighbors that might need help
• Help out on a community clean up day
• Work a BBQ
• Help apply for grants
• Help with fund raising
• Make street address signs
• Install those signs
• Pilot a small plane or drone
• Advise your neighbors on defensible space and home hardening (with training)

You get the idea…

On Saturday September 18, core members of the DSFSC walked Crestview Drive and the tributary streets. The group knocked on every door of the 40 homes to introduce ourselves and discuss the efforts of the Fire Safe Council. Each home was given a red bag with brochures regarding fire safety, information on the DSFSC, and forms to order street address signs. We had the opportunity to talk with over half of the home occupants and encourage them to become active in fire safety, to look out for their neighbors, and engage in fire prevention. The group was impressed by vegetation management undertaken by some of our neighbors and concerned about swaths of unmanaged areas.

The DSFSC plans to expand our walking/meet and greet tours throughout the District boundaries.

Check out the flyer we distributed:

For more information on the DSFSC or to help protect our community from wildfire please contact: dsfsc21@gmail.com

Additional projects to be determined by interest and resources include:

• Developing and implementing an evacuation plan with signage, communications, neighbor support, and block captains
• Tackling the massive fuel load in Martinez Creek drainage
• Chipping (note grant award mentioned above)
• Support to seniors/veterans/low income/disabled

For additional information from CalFire regarding defensible space, home hardening, evacuation, and more head over to https://www.readyforwildfire.org/

An updated questionnaire for interested persons, a map of the proposed boundary, and a copy of the 7/28 and 9/9 presentations are below.

Come join us.

Initial Household/Business Questionnaire

The Diamond Springs-El Dorado Fire Protection District developed a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) in 2011. The Diamond Springs Fire Safe Council will use that CWPP as our working document until major updates are developed.