Piedmont is classified as a “very high risk” wildfire zone, and the proposed Moraga Canyon plan could add between 400 and 1,000 new residents. The critical concern is that Moraga Avenue is the only evacuation route for the area. At a recent Planning Commission meeting, consultants and K. Jackson confirmed that there is no feasible evacuation exit from Coaches Field up to Maxwelton, nor is there one leading up from Blair Park.
When a single tree has fallen across Moraga Avenue, neighborhood streets—especially Pala Avenue—become completely gridlocked, leaving residents trapped. This raises serious concerns about how thousands of people could safely evacuate during a wildfire emergency.
While making homes “fire safe” can reduce minor risks, it will not protect residents during a major firestorm, such as the one that devastated Los Angeles.
I'm pleased to see the comprehensive draft of the, "City of Piedmont Local Hazard Mitigation Plan Update."
"PSAs for explosive gas alerts" were my submissions to the Plan. They clearly align with and would advance Goals 1 - 4 (possibly 5 as well). For mitigation, they seem to fall under, "Action 2. Multi-hazard public outreach, education, and engagement program."
However, I don't see any mention of the PSAs in the document except for my original submissions in the Public Comments and Appendix. Maybe they are too specific for this draft document. Because explosive gas alerts are so effective, trivial in cost, and widely unknown, I feel the need to highlight this omission and champion that they be undertaken. My family and I would welcome the opportunity to participate in creating them so that no one in our community is at risk of the death, pain and loss we experienced in a home gas explosion (2-Min New Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQi78PD-ofI).
I'd appreciate hearing feedback on getting explosive gas alerts into homes as part of Piedmont's Hazard Mitigation Plan. Thank you.
There are a lot of excellent ideas in this document. One measure that I believe needs more consideration and greater emphasis is the undergrounding of power and other utility lines. Although this measure is addressed in the document, the focus seems to be primarily on power lines on main throughways for evacuation purposes. The fact is that elevated power lines substantially increase the risk of fire in the event of earthquakes and severe storms and wind events. A comprehensive undergrounding program would not only alleviate the risk of catastrophic fire damage, but would also significantly improve the appearance of the city's neighborhoods and thereby improve residents' lives and increase their home values.
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Protecting our homes and community from urban wildfires is one of the concerns addressed in the LHMP. I appreciate the leadership and efforts of Chief Brannigan and the PFD to reach out and engage with the community at so many different venues. I'm glad to see that fire resistant building codes are being considered and somewhat disappointed that landscaping or in my mind "zone zero" is not being emphasized to the community as a whole. Installing Vulcan Vents throughout the exterior of our home, redoing zone zero, rethinking yard maintenance and gutter cleaning schedules took us several months but these tasks were not cost prohibitive nor difficult to execute. I hope PFD will continue to talk about home hardening, ember proofing and landscape strategies as climate change increases the threat of urban wildfires. I'm looking forward to the insurance discounts we will receive for our efforts to harden our home against wildfire threats - thank you, Captain Carlisle, Fire Marshall for scheduling and completing the advisory walk through of our property.
My suggestion is to provide more advance notification (as soon as possible ie months ahead) of community meetings regarding LHMP, disaster preparedness, practice drills so we can plan around our work and away schedules for these events. Also repeated reminders of upcoming events via email is also appreciated - I believe these nudges can be helpful to engage more of our community to do the work that is necessarily community based for disaster preparedness.
Thank you for all of your collective efforts on behalf of our community.