Growing concerns are coming from the San Luis Obispo County community after hearing about the destruction from the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year.
“Given what's happened in Palisades, and Eaton Canyon and Altadena... I'm very concerned [about] what is going to happen if (god forbid) something like this were to happen in our community,” said Sara Elena Loaiza, an Avila Beach resident.
Sara Elena Loaiza has lived in her Avila Beach home for nearly a decade.
She's worried a big fire could destroy the small city, especially because there's only one way in and out of town.
“The surrounding areas are full of dry palm branches from the palm trees that need to be cut back,” said Loaiza.
In response to community concern, CAL Fire SLO and San Luis Obispo County Fire held a meeting on Saturday bringing together speakers from multiple agencies around the county.
They each discussed with the community what they do and their role in a massive fire breaking out.
Some of that time involved answering questions from the community.
“We are trying to be very proactive about trying to make our community safe, so we have a lot of projects we are doing to reduce fuels in the wildland areas and trying to give out a lot of info and resources about how people can protect their homes through hardening and defensive space,” Ryan Grebe, SLO County Fire Department spokesman said.
Grebe says our local crews face several challenges, some of which include a lack of resources.
However, they do have help. They could call for mutual aid which involves bringing people from outside the area to help battle a wildfire.
“We have access to cal fires mutual aid system and Office of Emergency Services (OES) mutual aid system, so we're going to pull from resources all across the state whether that's aircraft or ground resources,” Grebe said.
Fortunately, the county has some infrastructure already in place.
“We have two air tact bases in the county that are a huge advantage and we were able to take on our fires very quickly,” Grebe said.
A meteorologist from the National Weather Service James Brotherton explained how SLO County is less at risk than Los Angeles from those Santa Ana winds.
“We have high wind concerns mainly driven by Pacific storms coming in off the ocean; more onshore winds can become very strong and damaging,” Brotherton said.
