The origins of Highland Firewise

Shareen Bell

Founder, Highland Firewise

By Shareen Bell, This article was also posted to lookout.co/santacruz.

The smoke!

I don’t know about you, but as haze and then a smoky flavor filled our air last week, my body reacted viscerally. I was also suddenly sent back to those terrible 2020 days of the CZU fire, when a firebomb raced toward us.

The ominous dark cloud that suddenly appeared in the north sky rapidly rolling toward our town.

This week, the tainted air meant I couldn’t do the hike I’d planned. I had to close all my doors and windows. Sitting inside without fresh air, I started remembering.

I remembered my first experience with wildfire was hearing about the Santa Rosa fires in 2017. Those fires burnt down 3,000 homes. Then again hearing about the Paradise fires in 2018 that burned down the entire town These two fires caught my attention, and although my awareness was building, it did not cause ‘action’ on my part. Yes, wildfires are terrifying and destructive but …. I’m thinking, my home is safe… right? I live in a coastal town, lots of fog and marine layers, shouldn’t be a problem. My realization did not cause ‘action’.

But what did move me to act was in the summer of of 2019 when my husband and I were driving home from our annual trek to see family and friends in Oregon and smoke seemed to follow us. The air quality index was terrible, about 200 for 10 hours.

We had made this same trek for the last 30 years and this had never happened. Even our car filter couldn’t filter out the smoke. The sky was gray, no sun even at high noon.

“What’s happening?” I said, as I stopped looking at the new vineyards and lines of freshly planted almond trees along the roadside and focused on the smoke and on the news of the fires that was causing them.

Our conversation turned to wildfire. This was a new experience, and not a pleasant one. Town after town had news of wildfires in their area.

Although I couldn’t see any of the fires, I certainly smelled the smoke. It was hard to even stop for gas. I didn’t want to get out of the car. (Face masks were not yet widely available, Covid-19 had not yet struck).

I wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of black smoke filling my lungs. Salem, Grants Pass, Ashland, Redding, Vacaville – all burning. So little left.

We were silent, but I kept returning to one thought: When we get back home, I’d better find out what the fire officials in Santa Cruz plan in case a wildfire happens here.

I’m always curious about current events both locally and globally, so I started snooping around the Santa Cruz Fire Department webpage, then looked at the next Santa Cruz City Council agenda. As it turned out – call it fate or luck – the next council agenda was highlighting the fire department’s annual report. Perfect.

I wandered down to the meeting to see what I could find out. Jason Hajduk, the fire chief, was just beginning his presentation.

The first thing he said was that wildfire chances in Santa Cruz are remote because of the marine layer that blankets us. But then, he went on to describe “Firewise,” a neighborhood program the National Fire Protection Association launched in 2000 that allows community members to participate in keeping their homes and neighborhoods safe.

This caught my attention.

Organizing neighbors and community building has been something I’ve been doing my whole life. Why not now? Why not get organized to get more informed, connect with neighbors and possibly prevent disaster?

So, along with a few others I recruited, I launched Highland Firewise in August 2019.

Little did I know that effort would get us a little better prepared for the fireball that hit us almost exactly a year later. When the CZU Lightening Complex fire hit, the Fire Marshall immediately called me, since at that time I was the designated Firewise contact for the neighborhood. He said, “start going around door-to-door and tell people to get their ‘go-bags’ ready. Be ready for evacuation if needed.” Because we had organized our Firewise neighborhood we were ready. We had a list of immediate neighbors and we immediately went into action. Calling, texting and knocking on doors. Making sure everyone was notified and had a safe place to go.

The fire – really a series of fires started by lightning – destroyed 1,490 buildings and homes in Boulder Creek, Bonny Doon, Swanton and along Empire Grade Road. They came within 1 mile of our neighborhood, immediately below the UCSC campus which had already been evacuated.

It was terrifying. But less so because of my neighbors. Because we had a plan. Because our Firewise team knew what to do. Since then, our Firewise Organizing team has grown. We now have over 30 ‘Block-Lead’ volunteers tasked with the primary goal of getting to know their neighbors (6-8) houses and setting up an emergency communication network to use in the next emergency.

Santa Cruz continues to have some serious wildfire risks. There are homes near and intermixed with wildland areas, known as WUIs. We have open lands and paths in parks strewn with dried underbrush and many trees we need to pay more attention to.

Over the last five years, Highland Firewise has grown to include 200+ homes and families from above High street up to the top of Spring and connecting streets to Highland. This includes the WUI areas below UCSC around the Pogonip and Harvey West Park ravines.

We are all neighbors who come together to learn and teach each other about the best ways to prepare, respond, and communicate during an emergency. And everyone volunteers their time (several hours a month) to get the word out to others.

As a member of the Highland Firewise organizing team, we continue to learn, work with the city Fire Marshall to secure funds to assist with fire-preparedness. We are increasing everyone’s awareness of home-hardening and the importance of tree maintenance. The idea is, if a fire ever comes, we will be as proactive as possible, our homes will be as protected as possible, and our neighbors will be safe.

Collectively we’ve worked hand-in-hand with the city arborist to identify dangerous trees along roads and in WUI areas that need to be trimmed and maintained. We’ve raised funds to hire goats to munch away brush along Evergreen cemetery ravine, which abuts the roadway along lower Highland Avenue.

We’ve held neighborhood meet-ups educating everyone on ‘go-bag’ preparation, proper tree maintenance, evacuation routes, wind patterns. We’ve put together multiple fire prevention resources on our webpage, highlandfirewise.org, for everyone in the community to access. We’ve invited our local fire responders and learned about our county’s CERT (community emergency response team).

We teamed up with other agencies to participate in fund-raising for clean-up activities. We’ve located a city green waste container in the neighborhood for clean up of underbrush. We’ve held block parties and community fundraisers.

But most importantly, we’ve gotten to know each other. I can’t say how important and life-affirming this is, particularly at a time when so many people feel isolated and alone.

“Neighbors helping neighbors” is our motto.

This connection helped us during the record storms that drenched us last winter and downed a giant pine tree on lower Highland. The tree hit an electric pole and we lost power for a week as crews worked to repair the damage. Luckily, most of us know each other. We shared meals, charged each others’ phones, helped get cars out of garages (hard to do if your garage door is electric), and made each other tea.

That week was far less terrible than it could have been – just because we were connected.