Tepusquet community a model of fire safety
22 December 2019
Published by https://santamariatimes.com/
USA – While the approaching Alamo fire sparked apprehension and fear in Tepusquet residents, panic wasn’t part of the equation — the neighborhood is one of the best prepared for wildfire in the county.
In fact, after completing a fuels treatment project, Tepusquet in 2009 was designated a Model Fire Safe Community.
But it took a fire captain’s suggestion, Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council information, a spot fire, a barbecue and the threat of the Zaca fire to bring it to today’s level of preparedness.
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Curtis and Linda Tunnell were introduced to wildfire danger in Tepusquet shortly after they moved to their ranch near the bottom of the canyon in 1987.
Curtis was out near the road cutting pipe to build a corral when a spark ignited dry grass, and the flames began spreading fast.
Curtis ran to the shed to get a shovel while Linda ran for the house to call 911.
“I was thinking, ‘My God, if that gets into the creek … ,’” she recalled.
Moments after placing the call, she was surprised to see an army of volunteers attacking the fire.
“I don’t know how many neighbors were driving by, stopped and jumped the fence with whatever tools they had or ran to the shed to grab a bucket or whatever,” she said. “By the time the Fire Department got here, the fire was out.”
The couple decided they needed to do something nice for the community in return, so they put together an address list and sent invitations to everyone to attend a thank-you barbecue.
“That was the start of the Tepusquet Barbecue,” she said, referring to the event that still fills their big patio with canyon residents every year. “The fire list originated from that list.
“At first, a lot of people were hesitant — they didn’t want to be on the list,” she added. “Then we had the Zaca fire, and all of a sudden a lot of people wanted to be on that list.”
Her friend and fellow Tepusquet resident Renée O’Neill agreed.
“That was the fire that motivated people. It figuratively lit a fire under everybody,” said O’Neill, who was instrumental in organizing canyon residents after being inspired by a Santa Barbara County Fire captain.
Steve and Renée O’Neill bought their 70-acre ranch in 1987 near the top of the canyon, where the walls grow narrow and the vegetation grows thick.
The property includes a one-bedroom cabin that over the years has been rented to various Santa Barbara County Fire Department personnel, including retired County Fire Capt. Alan Queoff, who began teaching the O’Neills about defensible space and other fire-safety concepts.
“We took his advice to heart and got to work on our place,” Renée said.
They began clearing away brush and grasses around their structures, trimming up tree limbs, mounting sprinklers at regular intervals along their roofs’ ridgelines and installing three fire hydrants, each with a red metal box containing a long section of fire hose and a nozzle for firefighter use.
“We have a high-pressure well to fill up the [Fire Department] water tenders,” Renée said. “We can pump water onto all the structures that we own.”
They also have a 500-gallon water trailer, a 1975 Mack fire truck her husband bought from Hancock College, full firefighter turnout gear and air packs.
Renée admitted they’ve gone beyond what the average resident needs or would be willing to do, but above all else she emphasized creating defensible space around structures and being careful with sources of ignition.
Renée got involved with the Fire Safe Council at Queoff’s suggestion, and at a 2004 informational meeting at Blochman School, she was named the Tepusquet liaison.
She began sharing fire safety information with Linda, who also began attending the meetings. Eventually, the two served as a team director on the council board.
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ogether, they organized several community meetings where they shared wildfire preparedness information.
“We learned a great deal from them,” Renée said of the Fire Safe Council. “Fuels reduction … emergency preparedness, notifying residents of fires, evacuation plans for people and animals, firescaping … protecting homes with foams [and] gels before evacuation … too much to list.”
The two also became co-commanders of FACT, the Fire Associates for the Community of Tepusquet, which maintains the fire list that grew out of the barbecue list before the advent of reverse 911 notifications.
It is now actually three lists: The alpha master list is organized alphabetically using residents’ names; the address list is organized in linear form from one end of the canyon to the other; and the phone tree list is further divided by the 12 “microcommunities” that make up the 15.6-mile-long community.
Together, the lists not only have residents’ names, addresses and phone numbers but also how many people live at each address, their ages, any medical or physical conditions making evacuation help necessary, and the number and type of structures, vehicles and animals at each site.
“Each fire we learned how to get more organized,” Renée said. “As we faced what seemed like annual wildland fires … we added several backup commanders. Now we have five commanders and a dozen fire captains.
“We also have folks assigned as ‘lookouts,’ depending on their vantage points,” she continued. “We all pull together when we are faced with any emergency. We even have a community Facebook page.”
If a wildfire threatens the canyon, county emergency services personnel will contact Renée and Linda or, if they aren’t available, backup commanders.
The commanders will relay emergency information to the 12 captains, who will then begin calling residents in their microcommunities.
Because disasters can happen at any time, commanders are essentially on call 24/7.
“You always have your list with you, no matter where you go,” Renée said.
Linda and Renée have strong opinions about what’s needed at the government level to make their community — and others — more fire-safe.
They said a coordinated, strategic fuel-reduction program is vital in areas where the forest and chaparral growth are thickest, and grasses must be cleared in a wide swath along all rural roadsides.
Both said for safe and efficient evacuation, the rough and winding Tepusquet Road, in some places barely more than one lane wide, must be improved, especially considering the increasing number of large trucks using it.
They also said all wildland firefighting agencies need more personnel “at the bottom, not at the top.”
As for individual properties, they also have recommendations.
Because there is no cellular phone service in the canyon, and electrical service could fail in a wildfire, Renée said people should get a land-line phone service.
She also advised people to not use a cordless phone on that line but to buy an old-school touch-tone phone, because they will work without electricity.
“Have well-marked driveways and well-marked addresses,” Renée said. “First responders can’t find you without marked driveways and clear addresses. Make a plan and execute that plan.”
Linda added, “Know what you have to take. And have it ready.”
“For people who live in the rural interface, the most important thing is to get involved with the Fire Safe Council,” Renée continued. “That meeting was what started to educate us on what we needed to do.
“And people, by gosh, should sign up with Aware and Prepare and the [County] Office of Emergency Management.”
Of course, she pointed out, all that advice is in “Welcome to Tepusquet,” a letter FACT sends every new resident who moves into the canyon.
