CAL FIRE dispatchers are your first call for help if you have a medical emergency or a fire and live in Ramona, Ranchita, Deer Springs, or many other communities in the San Diego County Fire Authority district. Dispatchers like Patricia Wilson gather essential information from callers and send first responders to the scene of the emergency, all while staying calm and giving advice as needed.
If you felt some shaking on the Fourth of July, and even if you didn’t personally sense it, you have likely heard it was from a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in the Mojave Desert near the town of Ridgecrest. The quake is being called one of the biggest in Southern California in 20 years, could be felt in various counties as far as San Diego County and Nevada, and is continuing to put out aftershocks.
At 11 a.m. Thursday, cellphones across San Diego County started sounding off with a loud tone used for emergency alerts. It was part of a test of the California Earthquake Early Warning System, also known as ShakeAlert.
The San Diego County Office of Emergency Services together with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and the United States Geological Survey will be conducting a test at 11 a.m. on June 27 using the Wireless Emergency Alert system. The test will affect all mobile phones in the county area and will evaluate if the system could be effectively used for the California Earthquake Early Warning, also called a ShakeAlert.
CAL FIRE and the County Fire Authority say don’t let the rainy weather fool you … fire season will be here before you know it. You should have a plan and be prepared now to protect yourself, your home and your community. Learn more at readysandiego.org.
Credit: American Red Cross San Diego-Imperial Counties If you are unlikely to install a smoke alarm in your home due to issues with mobility or financial constraints, then you could qualify for a program that will install them for you at no cost. More than a hundred homeowners in the County’s rural areas have already qualified as part of a recent and expanding campaign to equip households with the lifesaving equipment.
If you are ever in a situation where a Tsunami Advisory or Warning is issued, you’ll be glad to have watched a video created by three tenth graders for the County of San Diego’s Office of Emergency Services Tsunami Preparedness Week contest. It tells you what you need to do to survive.
