Supervisors Honor Mutual Aid Emergency Workers

The devastation of the Valley Fire in Lake County. Photo by José A. Álvarez.

Fierce wildfires have devastated parts of Northern California and the state of Washington in recent months, and five San Diego County employees deployed to assist with emergency operations in a couple of the hardest hit areas. All recently returned, and they were honored Tuesday with a Board of Supervisors proclamation recognizing their work.

The employees all brought experience from working during emergency incidents in San Diego County and provided help through what’s known as mutual aid: we assist other areas when they are overwhelmed with a disaster, and in turn can ask for help when we need it.

While firefighters often provide mutual aid assistance on the front lines, these five County employees all assisted in Emergency Operations Centers or fire incident command centers.

Three County employees traveled to Lake County last month to assist with the Valley Fire response: Bennett Cummings from the Office of Emergency Services, Sarah Gordon from the Public Safety Group Executive Office and José A. Álvarez from the Communications Office. The Valley Fire, which burned more than 76,000 acres across Lake, Napa and Sonoma Counties, is considered the third most destructive fire in the state to date this year. The fire destroyed nearly 2,000 structures, including nearly 1,300 homes. By comparison, the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego County is considered the second most destructive wildfire -- and remains the largest wildfire -- in state history.

Cummings, a Senior Emergency Services Coordinator, worked in the Lake County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Lakeport as a liaison for the Local Assistance Center in the Middletown community. This center offered recovery resources for affected residents. Cummings said his job was primarily to assess and prioritize the Local Assistance Center’s operational requirements to help the community’s needs.

Later, he helped with the move of residents from emergency shelters into temporary housing in the community. Additionally, Cummings helped the EOC outline a transitional recovery plan to continue to provide certain community needs with County departments taking the lead responsibility.

Bennett Cummings from the County Office of Emergency Services works at the Lake County Emergency Operations Center. Photo by José A. Álvarez.

Bennett Cummings from the County Office of Emergency Services works at the Lake County Emergency Operations Center. Photo by José A. Álvarez.He also helped coordinate among several San Diego County departments, state emergency officials and Lake County staff to provide information on a variety of public health and recovery best practices San Diego identified in the aftermath of its major fires.

“This is the largest disaster I have been involved with,” said Cummings. “It was a very good experience. I’m already applying some lessons learned to my work.”

Meanwhile, Gordon, a Public Safety Group Staff Officer, and Álvarez, a Communications Specialist, deployed to the Valley Fire for five days to work in the public information unit in Lakeport. Both used social media, the Lake County’s news and recovery website, and traditional media to get information to affected residents. Their professionalism and leadership skills led to both being asked to stay an extra day to oversee operations of the communications unit. Furthermore, Álvarez was asked to manage the local Joint Information Center over one weekend to allow the local public information officers to rest.

“The 12-hour shifts were a bit long but very rewarding because the information we were sharing with fire survivors was connecting them to resources that helped them restore a bit of order as they began to rebuild their lives,” said Álvarez.

In Washington State, Stephen Rea, the assistant director of the County’s Office of Emergency Services, served three weeks on a San Diego Urban Incident Management Team for the North Star and Tunk Block wildfires, the largest in that state’s history. The San Diego team’s deployment was the first time an All-Hazard Incident Management Team had been ordered through the national ordering system through the U.S. Forest Service. The 15-member team also included fire department members from San Diego Fire-Rescue, Heartland Fire & Rescue, Coronado, and Carlsbad.

Rea said the team worked two assignments. Initially, they reported to the Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane where they grouped fire vehicles into task forces for structure protection in one of three big fires burning in Washington. Rea worked as a liaison officer in charge of relaying information between his team and the Air Force base.

The next week, the team shifted to respond to the Northstar Fire, a 2.5 hour drive to the town of Nespelem. In this assignment, Rea would drive around the fire’s perimeter every day talking with city Emergency Operations Center directors as well as tribal leaders and community officials who had concerns to share with the fire incident commanders.

“Coming from the emergency operations center side, I can now use what I learned when I’m on the other side of the fence and I have to interact with an emergency management team that has come to San Diego to help with a local disaster,” Rea said. RELATED: County Fire Mapper Brings Expertise to California Firefights

Supervisor Dianne Jacob presents County employees Matt Turner, Sarah Gordon, Stephen Rea, José A. Álvarez, and Bennett Cummings with a proclamation for their mutual aid emergency service to other counties.

San Diego County Fire Authority GIS Information Specialist Matt Turner deployed twice to work on wildfires in Northern California. He assisted with fire mapping for nearly two weeks last month at the Butte Fire in Amador and Calaveras counties. Previously in August, Turned served for two weeks on the Rocky and Jerusalem wildfires, both of which affected Lake, Yolo and Colusa counties. On both assignments, he created critical maps that showed specific situations such as the fire progression, perimeter and fire operations, among others.