State Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Palo Alto) took a tour of the fire-devastated areas in Northern California last summer and said he found the experience "incredibly sad."
"I've had a half-dozen colleagues who have constituents who have been killed in different fires over the past two years," Berman said. "We need to do more and more to address this new environment we live in."
As part of that process, Berman is sponsoring a June 22 wildfire town hall meeting in Portola Valley, which, along with Woodside, is among the most wildfire-prone areas of his district.
The town hall will be from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Portola Valley Community Hall, 765 Portola Road.
A panel made up of representatives from state and local firefighting agencies and PG&E will discuss what homeowners can do to protect themselves, and what help they can expect from state and local agencies in the event of a wildfire.
Panelists will discuss "home hardening," or making properties more fire-resistant; how fire protection agencies will respond to fires; how alert systems will operate; and the role of statewide mutual aid and the California Office of Emergency Services.
Berman characterized the meeting as "something for people who live all across the district," which includes the southern portion of San Mateo County and the northern area of Santa Clara County.
"The towns, the state, and PG&E will all be at the same place at the same time," Berman said. "We're providing as much information as possible for people worried about fires."
The Portola Valley town hall is the only one scheduled so far, but Berman said his office will be looking at the attendance on June 22 and may be holding other meetings, depending on community interest.
If you plan to attend, you can RSVP at tinyurl.com/wildfiremeeting.
Comments
Woodside: Skywood/Skylonda
on Jun 20, 2019 at 8:09 pm
on Jun 20, 2019 at 8:09 pm
Oh great! This looks like "wildfire theater" to me.
Why do our government employees always want to talk about what we citizens should do when a wildfire is already on its way?
How about talking about what our government is going to do to prevent it from happening in the first place? When is the brush clearance of Highway 84 going to happen? When is Mid-peninsula Open Space going to clear out their rats nest called Thornewood? What is the government doing to enforce the law on our neighbors who are oblivious to the problem and illegally operating kindling farms on their property? The problems are obvious and right front of everyone's faces.
I'm tired of government telling me how I can help. I help by paying for it. Defensible space instructions and CERPP activities are all over the web and anyone's who's going to do that already knows and has done it. We don't need to hear it again.
I want to know what government is going to do to PREVENT wildfire.