California Wildfires Strike Again

The Santa Barbara fire wasn’t expected. The residents in the area were recently told to start preparing for fires which were expected in later months by clearing brush that they may have on their property. Unfortunately no one really knows when a fire will start, if not a brush fire that spreads quickly; it could easily be a home fire. In this case 30,500 Santa Barbara residents were forced to evacuate. Some had little time to prepare and likely grabbed anything they could as they quickly left their homes to find refuge in temporary living shelters provided by the community and government. The 13 1/2 square miles fire broke out on May 5 and destroyed 77 homes and damaged 22 others, according to county estimates. Sixty outbuildings were also destroyed and 69 others were damaged.

One community member, Marty Conoley, said of the fire, "Who would have thunk a fire at this time of year?" You really don’t know when a fire will start, even if it isn’t fire season. It has been reported that the culprit of the fire was a power tool, but it is still under investigation.  Just 6 months ago Santa Barbara was fighting another fire and lost 200 homes in the process (nbc.com). The reality is that a disaster could hit anytime, whether it’s a fire, an earthquake, hurricane, or a tornado. Being lucky enough to survive unscathed from a disaster, surely the first thing that would come to mind is “how can I prepare better for the next time?”

It was lucky that the fires didn’t cause any fatalities. People were given sufficient amount of time to evacuate their homes in this case, but in the case of a home fire where you wouldn’t necessarily have much time to evacuate beforehand a fire safety guide would be a smart idea to go over with your family or roommates. Not only would a fire safety guide be helpful, but emergency supplies would be as well. With more than 30,000 people evacuated for the Santa Barbara fires it is to be expected that when some of the people returned home they found that their electricity was out and maybe that their water had been turned off as well. This would be an opportune time to turn to a home survival kit and any other emergency supplies that one would keep on hand in their house.

QuakeKare offers a variety of emergency supplies which are featured in different emergency survival kits which are structured to meet different people’s needs. In these kits, you will find items such as a solar/hand-crank powered light, radio and cell phone charger, sanitation supplies, first aid kits, emergency food and water and many more supplies to aid you in your time of need. Fires can happen anywhere at any time. Even if you get out of the house, you may need a first aid kit, drinking water, or an emergency blanket while you wait for help to arrive. Being prepared for that one time would if anything keep you confident that you and your loved ones would have the basic necessities to survive.

By Shante Morrison
QuakeKare Press
June 13th 2009

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