One morning in the fall of 2017, Occidental resident Carolyn Sell woke up to an orange sky and a view of the Santa Rosa valley on fire. Realizing how easily fire could spread west to her community, Sell decided, from her vantage point up in the hills, to make sure Occidental would be ready when disaster came.
Sell is one of several Occidental residents who has spent the past few years collectively organizing in preparation against fire and other disasters, through the volunteer organization Fire Safe Occidental (FSO). Their efforts have also resulted in the creation of Safer West County, a larger nonprofit organization aimed at replicating FSO’s model in other west county communities.
Fire Safe Occidental is officially dedicated to “promoting the safety of Occidental residents,” according to the organization’s mission statement. In practice, however, it goes much further than that, fostering community between neighbors, empowering residents to protect their homes and working with the county as an advocate for the entire region.
Elizabeth Lawson, FSO steering committee member and Safer West County treasurer, said the organization’s structure was initially inspired by Sell’s efforts to create a phone-tree for her neighbors in the wake of the 2017 fires.
“When we were first starting Fire Safe Occidental, we realized, well, that’s the model we really want to work with,” Lawson said.
The organization held its first meeting at the end of 2018. The next year, it held a series of educational meetings open to all west county residents, bringing in experts on fire preparation, home hardening and landscape protection.
As FSO has grown, it’s maintained its person-to-person, community-level focus. The organization is composed of a network of 18 neighborhoods, all of which designate a leader to run point on disaster response. Fostering reliable communication between neighbors is still one of the organization’s core priorities, especially given the rural nature of many west county homes.
“Our communication systems out here are really spotty,” Sell said. “And we rely on each other. And we rely on redundancy, to be sure that everyone is getting information regarding any possible emergency.”
Working in conjunction with Sonoma County, Fire Safe Occidental recently advocated for the distribution of thousands of weather radios across west county, to maintain communication lines during times of emergency.
“So, part of it is that the more people you have, the more information you have, the better you’re able to spread the word. And that works at the macro level and the micro level,” Lawson said.
In addition to communication and education, FSO’s other major priority lies in maintaining open and accessible evacuation routes.
“One of the other major goals was to set up alternate evacuation routes for the neighborhoods because many of our roads are single exit,” Lawson said, adding that they’re since successfully established alternate exits to nearly all dead-end roads in the Occidental area and conducted a successful evacuation drill in June.
FSO has partnered with Conservation Corps North Bay, AmeriCorps, Fire Safe Sonoma and the County of Sonoma to fund major fire mitigation projects that would be nearly impossible for residents to accomplish at the individual level. They organized free chipping for property owners, and connected AmeriCorps volunteers with older residents who needed extra hands to fire-proof their proporty.
“When we call the county and we say, look, there’s an issue here, we have a voice that covers a much greater reach,” Amy Beilharz, president of Safer West County and member of the FSO steering committee. “And the county is starting to see us as a trusted ally in making things happen both directions”
Approaching fire mitigation as a united collective has made Occidental more efficient, well-informed and ultimately better prepared, according to Beilharz.
“You hear a lot about resiliency. It’s a buzzword right now,” she said. “And yet, the reality is that you are only as resilient and as safe as what’s next to you. And you know, it’s never been more true.”
