The Lincoln County Fire Defense Board, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and Lincoln County Public Health are partnering together to prepare our community members, business owners, and visitors on our local wildfire threat conditions, public safety evacuation response procedures, and efforts individuals can take to be ready for wildfire season. May 1st is Wildfire Community Preparedness Day; this is a great day to develop a list of the items you can do around your home or property for wildfire mitigation.
Over the next several weeks you will see that many of the state partners have already or will be kicking off wildfire readiness programs. We will try to share these when they are referred to us and post on our local “What’s happening now” webpage. Locally, due to continued physical distancing, our outreach campaign will be offered in a virtual format until we can be with you again for in person events.
The County is expanding the 2-hour Lincoln County Wildfire Readiness presentation into six modules and adding an additional session for each Fire District/Department of Lincoln County. These sessions, split up into modules will give more flexibility to our community members to pick and choose those sessions of most interest to them. Wildfire Readiness Community Presentations - Virtual: All presentations are scheduled from 7-8pm; the recordings and presentation slides will be posted to the website for access. Click here to see the full schedule.
The presentations will incorporate specific topics to assist in the planning, mitigation, response, and recovery from wildfire events for both our rural and city neighborhood areas.
Wildfire history and seasonal fire conditions
How to prepare your home, property, & family
Evacuation Levels (Be Ready, Be Set, Go Now)
What to expect if you receive an evacuation order
Assistance after you evacuate
How to minimize health effects of smoky conditions
Sheriff Landers remarked, “Coordinating evacuations of neighborhoods for Lincoln County is not a regular occurrence for our public safety agencies. The North County devastating wildfires from last September showed us how extremely important these readiness events are to make sure our community members are ready to pack up their valued belongings, pets, and family members, and leave their homes quickly.
These wildfire readiness events are the best way we, as public safety officials, can educate our community members of the three evacuation levels, what to expect when they receive a call from Lincoln Alerts to “GO NOW” or when a Deputy knocks on their door to notify them of a wildfire threat and the best route to take to safety. Our Sheriff’s Office has worked hard to mirror our evacuation directions, public messaging and notification processes of our sister counties who experience these conditions every year”.
Chief Rob Murphy, Lincoln County Fire Defense Board Chief remarked “Wildfire threat is not just a risk for rural areas of Lincoln County; each property owner should take the time to look at their yards and properties and build a defensible space to protect their homes and structures. Lincoln County is generally considered to have a lower threat for wildfire compared to other central and eastern counties.
However, with our expected seasonal weather conditions, our local risk increases. Our cooperation as a community to reduce our fire risk, adhere to fire safety rules and stay aware of current conditions are some of the important steps community members can do to protect themselves and assist public safety with seasonal wildfire risk reduction.” Lincoln County Emergency Manager, Jenny Demaris, remarked “Working hand in hand with our public health, fire, and law enforcement partners for emergency evacuation is critical to ensure public safety. As representatives of public health emergency preparedness, we take care to:
consider the requirements of community members with access and functional needs in our evacuation planning efforts.
ensure shelters are available for displaced persons.
provide educational resources to minimize the health effects from anticipated smoky conditions.”