Do You Have Essential Wildfire Knowledge?

The devastation Hawaii is experiencing due to wildfire is heart-wrenching to see and a sobering reminder to take stock of our own preparedness in the event of such a catastrophe closer to home.

Local emergency response personnel plan, train and equip for disasters, but those efforts are only one side of a preparedness partnership. During major incidents, first responders can be overwhelmed; there simply are not enough resources initially available to help all who need it. For this reason, it is critical for the other side of that partnership, the public, to take responsibility for preparing for the consequences of the hazards we face.

If you are at home reading this, do you have essential supplies and important documents ready to go so you could immediately walk out the door? Would you pause to take a video of an approaching firestorm or take immediate positive steps to secure the safety of yourself, your family, and your neighbors? Do you have a list of what those steps would be? Do you know where you and any of your pets and livestock would go? If you are at work, do you know how to contact your family and where you would meet if your phone suddenly stopped working? If you are separated from children, grandparents, or other loved ones who may have access or functional needs, do they know who might be able to help them, what they should do, and where they should go? Finally, how would you get emergency information to make sound decisions, and what would you do if those sources were not available?

Tools to help answer the questions above are available on websites such as ready.gov or through your local emergency management office. Every jurisdiction, however, has different tools to provide incident information, so it's important to check for what is available where you live. In Jefferson County, we have four methods to deliver information to citizens.

First, residents need to sign up for CodeRED, Jefferson County's reverse notification system that allows us to notify residents of hazards that may be threatening their area. The sign-up for that service can be accessed by scanning this QR code with your smartphone camera:

Those who need help signing up can also call the Jefferson County Office of Emergency Management at 406-225-4035. Other methods of information distribution in Jefferson County include our Low Power FM Radio Stations ( https://jeffersoncounty-mt.gov/community-resources/), and the Jefferson County, Montana Sheriff's Office Facebook page. Finally, Sheriff's Deputies will, if possible, go door-to-door or make neighborhood drive-through announcements to advise residents of an immediate hazard.

It is important to note, however, that even with backup power generation, redundant phone systems, and backup internet connections, major incidents can cause infrastructure failures that prevent our notification methods from working. It is in those instances where the preparedness partnership with the public becomes even more important. If you feel unsafe or feel you could be in the future, you do not and should not wait to be told to evacuate. Many tragedies occur when citizens leave too late.

Intense wildfires can cause the clearest day to turn into night and winds can fill roads with debris. Those conditions often result in disorientation and panic, which in turn leads to vehicle crashes that further block escape routes. For all those reasons it is critical that citizens maintain their own situational awareness and be prepared to take positive action on their own in the face of a disaster. Emergency personnel will do all they can to help, but each of us must also prepare ourselves to help avoid tragedy.