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PermalinkMonday, July 27, 2009
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Getting Prepared for Fire Season
Aired 7/27/09
San Diego area firefighters are trying to make sure homeowners are prepared for this year’s wildfire season. KPBS reporter Katie Orr says firefighters fanned out around the county over the weekend to distribute safety information.
Above: This home's location next to a brush covered hill and the tall trees that surround it make the house vulnerable to fires.
SAN DIEGO — San Diego area firefighters are trying to make sure homeowners are prepared for this year’s wildfire season. KPBS reporter Katie Orr says firefighters fanned out around the county over the weekend to distribute safety information.
On a warm and breezy morning, El Cajon Fire Captain Rodney Geilenfeldt through a neighborhood dropping fire safety information packets on every driveway. Geilenfeldt was taking part in the Before the Threat campaign meant to get homeowners thinking now about how to protect their houses in fire season. He points to a home surrounded by trees that sits next to a hill covered in brush. He says a fire could easily overtake the house.
“It would just slide right over there hit that deck that’s right up against those trees. That deck would catch fire, it would get up under the eves, get up in the attic and before you know it, that house is gone,” he says.
Geilenfeldt says people living in neighborhoods often don’t think they’re at risk because they don’t live in the back country. But he says past wildfire season have shown that’s not true.
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