‘Community’ is Montecito’s Strength in Wildfire Prevention & Preparedness Montecito Fire Department Leans into Proactive Wildfire Mitigation Efforts

We are in the middle of winter. January is not even over, yet over the past three months, we have seen multiple extreme, wind-driven wildfires devastate Southern California communities. 

The Mountain Fire in Camarillo in November burned nearly 20,000 acres and destroyed over 240 structures. 

The Franklin Fire in Malibu in December burned 4,000 acres and damaged or destroyed nearly 50 structures. 

On January 7, two wildfires broke out that none of us will soon forget. The Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades and Malibu burned over 23,000 acres, damaged 1,017 structures, destroyed 6,837 structures and claimed 12 lives. The Eaton Fire in Altadena and Pasadena consumed more than 14,000 acres, damaged 1,073 structures, destroyed 9,418 structures and took 17 lives. 

The full scope of these disasters is still being realized and as Californians living in a wildfire-prone environment, now is the time to lean in, learn and prepare. 

Montecito Fire Department was engaged in all of the above incidents, deploying our personnel as part of California’s master Mutual Aid system. Simply put, mutual aid is an agreement between fire departments that we will offer help to a community facing crisis, and out-of-town agencies will offer support to our community when needed.

During the Thomas Fire and 1/9 Debris Flow, mutual aid resources from all over the state and nation came to the South Coast. The mutual aid system allows Montecito Fire to pay it forward, help our neighbors in need, and take comfort in knowing others will be there for us if a major incident occurs at home.

“Our first priority is to protect our community, and our partners across Santa Barbara County have that same priority,” Montecito Fire Chief David Neels said. “Fortunately, we have sufficient resources to protect our community, and also provide mutual aid.”

Our ability to immediately support our neighbors in Southern California earlier this month was due to pre-planning by our department. In advance of Red Flag fire weather conditions, Montecito Fire Department calls additional firefighters back to work to staff engines, enhance dispatch capabilities and provide incident command support. This positions us to be on standby to respond to incidents locally and regionally. 

At the time of the Palisades and Eaton fires’ ignitions, we were experiencing similar elevated fire weather conditions in Montecito. As a result, we had four extra firefighters on duty, staffing one of our wildland firefighting engines, Engine 391. 

When the request came in to help at the Palisades Fire on the afternoon of January 7, we were able to immediately deploy Engine 391 down south and brought four more firefighters back to work to fill in behind those heading to L.A. This is done strategically to maintain our increased resources locally so that we have a robust response available if an incident occurs here. 

Elevated fire weather conditions fortunately subsided in Montecito by January 8. Consequently, we were able to fulfill additional requests for help in L.A., this time at the Eaton Fire. 

In total, we deployed 12 of our personnel to the Palisades and Eaton fires. We are happy to report that the last of our personnel who were still assigned to those incidents returned home this week on Monday, January 27. 

The destruction in Los Angeles is nothing short of astonishing and heartbreaking. Our sincere condolences go out to everyone impacted by these historic incidents. Our community of Montecito remembers how it feels to lose absolutely everything except, perhaps, our sense of community. 

In the weeks following these fires, we have fielded dozens of calls, emails and requests from residents to better understand how everyone can be prepared for wildfire here. 

To each of you who have contacted Montecito Fire Department to have these conversations, we want to say, thank you. We genuinely appreciate your concern and interest in taking proactive measures to be ready for the next wildfire.

That sense of community is what truly makes the difference in our ability to mitigate wildfire here. We are encouraged by the momentum and motivation we have seen from our residents and those taking additional preventative measures now. 

Due to the forward-thinking of Montecito Fire’s Board of Directors, a significant portion of your fire department’s budget is invested in fire prevention. It’s a worthwhile investment that produces exponential returns.

Many of you have recently requested visits from our two Wildland Fire Specialists, Maeve Juarez and Nic Elmquist. Their days have been busy with Defensible Space Surveys where they walk properties with homeowners to provide feedback on their 100 feet of brush clearance and offer suggestions on how to improve their property’s resilience to wildfire with home hardening techniques.

“Our community does an excellent job of taking the necessary wildfire preparation precautions, in large part because of their familiarity with wildfires here,” Montecito Wildland Fire Specialist Nic Elmquist said. “Due to the lack of rainfall and snowpack, we’re seeing that the fuels are much more receptive to burning than what we would consider normal for this time of year.” 

“The last thing you want to do is to start preparing when there is already smoke in the air. Now is the time to focus on your defensible space, harden your home, and ensure you have a plan to be ready for wildfire,” said Montecito Wildland Fire Specialist Maeve Juarez. “Wildfire has happened here before and it will happen again. We must shift our mindset to preparedness. Get to know your neighbors and prepare together.”

Our Neighborhood Chipping Program starts February 18. This vegetation management project has become a great tradition in Montecito. Last year, nearly 700 tons of excess vegetation were removed through this program. 

Neighborhood Chipping is offered to 1,700+ properties in the Montecito Fire District. Each property that cuts and stacks brush for chipping makes an incremental improvement in our entire community’s resilience against wildfire. 

As your Montecito Fire Public Information Officer, I often think of John Donne’s poem “No Man Is an Island” when talking about wildfire preparedness. No one person’s actions to prevent wildfire is enough to stop the next conflagration like what we saw in Los Angeles. 

However, if every community member takes steps to prepare by maintaining defensible space, hardening their homes, signing up for emergency alerts at ReadySBC.org and practicing multiple ways to evacuate in a dynamic emergency, we stand a much better chance of surviving the next major wildfire. 

As part of our annual community outreach programs, we will host a Wildfire Preparedness Community Meeting this spring in partnership with First District Supervisor Roy Lee and his staff. We look forward to this in-person opportunity to answer your questions and will share event details in the weeks to come. 

We invite the community to review our wildfire preparedness resources on montecitofire.com, including short videos explaining how to harden your home with simple do-it-yourself options and what you can expect if you are asked to evacuate due to a wildfire.

The wildfire outlook for this year is undeniably concerning due to severe weather. Yet, the collective efforts by our community, combined with Montecito Fire Department’s proactive, holistic approach to wildfire prevention, is reassuring when considering the realities of wildfire here. 

We are grateful for your collaboration and commitment to being a resilient community.

A Note from Houghton Hyatt, MA’s ED

Fire Preparedness & Prevention Measures

At our January Board meeting, Chief Neels provided an update on the Palisades and Eaton fires and detailed steps the Montecito Fire Department (MFD) is taking to enhance fire prevention and community preparedness.

Key points from the presentation included:

Evacuation Planning: Two recent studies led to revised evacuation zones, developed in partnership with emergency management. Residents in mountain areas were urged to evacuate early. A community presentation on the new zones is forthcoming.

Red Flag Warning Measures: MFD is working on implementing no-parking days during Red Flag Warning events. They continue to focus on increased staffing and community fire prevention efforts.

Fire Safety Tips: Chief Neels emphasized the importance of vigilance and shared actionable steps for residents:

Learn alternate evacuation routes.

Sign up for emergency alerts.

Organize neighborhood phone trees.

Participate in MFD’s chipping program.

Report cars blocking fire hydrants to the sheriff’s non-emergency number at (805) 683-2724.

Clear driveways of branches and hedges to ensure fire engine access.

Download the Watch Duty App for real-time fire updates. 

The presentation reinforced the critical need for community-wide cooperation and preparedness to ensure Montecito’s safety during fire season.