HAVE A PLAN AND BE READY FOR WILDFIRES
Fire Preparedness
Vacaville’s Mediterranean climate creates conditions that are ideal for travel and enjoyment of our region's many attractions, but also may result in occasional seasonal weather-related events. Please prepare yourself and your business for any potential occurrences by familiarizing yourself with the below information to ensure your guests are well-informed. We are also updating this page with any current fire industry news and toolkits. It is important to plan ahead and keep residents, visitors, and employees informed. Should Vacaville be directly impacted, our goal is to ensure the tourism industry is primed for action.
Residents
- The Vacaville Fire Department has partnered with Cal Fire on the Ready, Set, Go! program to to educate the community on how to plan, prepare, and stay aware. Be ready: create and maintain defensible space to increase your home's chance of surviving a wildfire.
- Get set: prepare your home and your family ahead of time by creating an evacuation plan and building an emergency supply kit. Sign up for Nixle and Alert Solano to receive emergency alerts via voice message, text, or email.
- Be ready to go!: Leave as soon as an evacuation is recommended by fire or police to avoid being caught in fire, smoke or road congestion. We have combined important information from the PDF links above into a handy Ready, Set, Go Pamphlet.
The state’s largest utility companies, including PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric Company) are coordinating a "Power of Being Prepared" media campaign to inform residents and visitors about public safety power shutoffs during "very high" or "extreme" fire threats during summer and early-mid fall. - ALERTWildfire is a consortium of three universities -- The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), University of California San Diego (UCSD), and the University of Oregon (UO) -- providing access to state-of-the-art Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) fire cameras and associated tools to help firefighters and first responders: (1) discover/locate/confirm fire ignition, (2) quickly scale fire resources up or down appropriately, (3) monitor fire behavior through containment, (4) during firestorms, help evacuations through enhanced situational awareness, and (5) ensure contained fires are monitored appropriately through their demise.
- As a safety precaution, if elevated weather conditions include a potential fire risk, PG&E may shut off power in local cities and towns in Solano County. Just like each day’s weather, circumstances for each Public Safety Power Shutoff will be unique.
- A power shut down, which includes the weather event plus restoration time, could last several days. PG&E will only restore power when they are certain it is safe to do so. For planning purposes, they suggest customers prepare for multiple-day outages.
- Before turning off power, PG&E, and other California-based utility companies, will send early-warning notifications (48 hours in advance, when possible) by phone, text alerts and emails to prepare residents, businesses, and visitors of possible shutdowns. Websites and social media channels will also share information and provide regular updates to local news and radio outlets. PG&E customers may update their contact information at My Wildfire Alerts.
Visitors
- Warm, dry summer and autumn conditions make for a beautiful experience in Vacaville, but also pose higher risks for fires, a natural occurrence in the state and our region. These fires are typically miles away from the city and in many cases, play little to no part in disrupting a visitor’s experience. When traveling to any destination, especially during the peak time periods for weather-related events, visitors should be aware of the potential for a situation that will require immediate action. All travel-related cautions should be considered when making arrangements for any trip.
- Before traveling, visitors should:
Research areas on their itinerary. It may be possible to easily reroute a trip to a nearby California destination in case of interruption by fire-related effects. - Consult local weather and air-quality forecasts in the destination. Look for any alerts such as Red Flag Warnings, Fire Weather Watch and for possible closures (roads, parks, forests).
- Check local government websites to sign up for emergency alerts and download the Cal Fire app to refer to while in state.
Travelers with trips planned to an area affected by actives fires should:
- Contact lodging providers for the latest on-the-ground information, including whether evacuations, closures or other preventative power shutoffs are possible or if rooms are needed for evacuees from affected surrounding communities.
- Check with airline about canceling or rescheduling flights. Typically, flights run as usual unless air quality is severely impacted.
Travelers in a destination affected by fires should:
- Visitors should consult a reputable traveler checklist such as the following before traveling: Travelers from abroad click here and domestic travelers click here
- Fire season typically includes occasional public safety power shutoffs to reduce the risk of fire. Understand local community’s evacuation plan.
- Be sure to keep at least a half-tank of gas in their vehicles and some emergency provisions on hand.
- Be mindful of poor air quality’s effects and consider staying indoors and reducing physical activity if some has made the air unhealthy. People experiencing health effects from a smokey environment may benefit from using a tight-fitting N95 or P100 particulate respirator to reduce exposure.
- Visit California’s Responsible Travel Code asks everyone to do their part in preserving California and to ensure the safety of themselves, California communities and visitors. This includes practicing extreme caution during dry conditions and following all laws regarding open fires, as well as having an emergency plan and following any evacuation orders.
Vacaville is grateful for the Vacaville Fire Department, Cal Fire and all first responders for their efforts to keep residents and visitors safe.
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