Fire Alert Failures -- the Connecting Thread Among California Wildfires
This "Communications Failures" slide recalls the experience of Paradise, CA residents during the November 8, 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 residents. Questions rightly need to be asked when someone dies in an emergency. We owe it to the deceased and to ourselves to learn what went wrong, because the answers may prevent future deaths. Unfortunately, lessons learned in one emergency don’t necessarily carry over to the next one. California wildfires, from last year and this summer, illuminate the problem. The Sacramento Bee reported on July 29, 2018 about three family members who died when the Carr fire swept into their Redding neighborhood. No one in the family reportedly knew an evacuation order had been issued. According to a surviving family member, “There was no evacuation notice. Our evacuation was a mile-wide column of smoke rotating toward us.” On October 15 of that year, the Bee displayed this headline: “Northern California wildfires expose emergency alert weakn...