Video Transcript:

GLORIA PENNER (Host): Two years have passed since devastating wildfires consumed more than 1,500 homes and killed ten people in the county. While San Diego remembers the horror stories, hundreds of the victims are rebuilding and some haven't even begun. Is San Diego better prepared for wildfire than it was in 2007? You covered the fires in both 2003, Leslie, and in 2007. How has our fire preparedness changed? Are we better?

LESLIE BRANDSCOMB (San Diego Uptown News): Well we're a little bit better off, but I don't think we're there yet. In 2003, it was discovered fairly shortly that a lot of the different agencies, their radios didn't even talk to each other. California Department of Fire couldn't communicate with the San Diego Sheriff's Department. The different agencies, the smaller ones, had outmoded communications equipment. A lot of that has been upgraded, I don't know if it's perfect yet, but it's been changed. We now have at least one fire helicopter at our disposal here in San Diego. We didn't have that before. And different policies are in place to evacuate people sooner. So we've improved a lot. Also, we have a reverse 9-1-1 calling system in place. We've improved a lot between 2003 and 2007, but there's still more to be done. A lot of people have said reverse 9-1-1 isn't functional now that so many people use their cell phones and plus the power goes out at your house once the lines burn down. And there is just so much more we need to do and I think as citizens, we need to take responsibility to make ourselves prepared. We can't count on the government to do it for us necessarily.

PENNER: Ok. So we've taken the steps. J.W., do you think that those steps are going to make the devastation less in the future? That we'll see fewer losses than we saw in 2007 and 2003?

J.W. AUGUST (10 News): Well I think we have to get used to a fourth season now. It used to be fall, but now it's fire. Fires are here to stay. And devastating fires I'm afraid are still going to be part of our lives no matter how well they plan. This is nature. We don't know where the fire comes from, what mountain range it'll come blowing over. You can't put a fire truck on every street. We should be prepared that we're going to have these terrible fires in the future. We should be prepared to protect life, property, and the environment as best we can.

PENNER: When we look back at 2007 and we see the devastation those people suffered, we wonder why the rebuilding is taking so long. What's going on?

BRANDSCOMB: It's a lot of the same reasons that it happened in 2003, and it's disappointing to see that that hasn't improved. The red tape coming from the city and the county as far as getting the right permits. There are stricter rules for rebuilding in the backcountry - stricter fire safety rules now that must be adhered to. And also, there's just the matter of insurance, struggling with insurance. And I'm sad to see that that is still going on. You'd think we would have learned our lesson in 2003. But there is also the cost of building materials going up, the cost of labor, and a lot of people are underinsured still. And that's something that is hard to communicate to people in non-fire times - that you really need to pay more for your insurance. You have to be ready for that possible scenario where your house burns all the way to the ground and the foundation goes with it.

PENNER: Sad story. I think it's really interesting, J.W., that all of the county failed in getting the fire districts consolidated into one so that there could be one effort to fight fires. It didn't happen. But now we've just heard that La Mesa, El Cajon, and Lemon Grove have pulled together their fire departments. They're going to be managed under one person, Mike Scott, who is with the El Cajon Fire Department. Is that a really good move?

AUGUST: That is a good move. Increased efficiency, better communication between the departments. If Lemon Grove has a big one, these guys move in there quickly. They don't have to go up some chain of command and try to get things done. They joined some North County cities, Encinitas and some others, which recently also had three or four cities join and say hey, we can get this done. Even there was kind of a failure at the top to get these giant fire districts, at least the smaller fire districts are talking to each other local to local and saying hey, somebody has to do something and we're going to do it.

PENNER: Well at this point the major conflict now seems to be with whether SDG&E is going to have the power to shut off the power to the backcountry, and I'm going to turn to you on this, Leslie. That's been a bone of contention. SDG&E wants to be able to shut off power to the backcountry, the city says yeah, the county says no. I mean, what's happening there?

BRANDSCOMB: That's a very, very difficult question. I don't know, it seems to be taking a while for them to iron that one out. SDG&E now is being sued by people who accused them of starting the last fires, and they have a very good point. Something needs to be done with those wires blowing in the high winds. Yet if they turn off the power, other people will be inconvenienced. And in fact, perhaps even terribly inconvenienced if they can't get the information that they need from radio or television, the internet, or even telephone in times of fire danger when they need to evacuate. But I can certainly understand why SDG&E needs to protect itself from further claims of this type.

PENNER: Thank you very much, Leslie Wolf Brandscomb, and J.W. August.