A group of rural San Diego fire chiefs say they've made a lot of progress fighting major wildfires like the one that stuck the county in October.
San Miguel Fire chief Augie Gio says the region has made great strides since the Cedar Fire hit four years ago. He says there was a major improvement in communication between fire agencies. Gio says area residents also made their job easier.
Gio : We believe that we saved a lot of homes and a lot of lives this past fire because we had a more educated, more aware, better planned community. That happened this time. That was a dramatic improvement.
Gio says there is still plenty of room for improvement. He says fire fighting could be more effective if there's a regional fire fighting agency. However, he says it’s been hard to find the estimated 50 million dollars a year it would take to fund such an agency.
