• The Publisher’s Notebook •

No Red Flag Holiday in Malibu

BY ANNE SOBLE

While the rest of us were enjoying our Thanksgiving festivities, fire crews and other safety personnel were patrolling the Malibu area around the clock. Even though weather forecasts for the week now call for less intense winds than first predicted, the wildfire danger remains high. Stronger winds are expected to return in a day or so, and the extra firefighting personnel and equipment that were assigned to Malibu at the beginning of the week and then redeployed as the fog held on and the temperatures stayed low, will return. Still, the Los Angeles County Fire Department cautiously kept an extra patrol vehicle and water tender on local watch, and one helicopter of the six on duty remained assigned to the Malibu area. Pending what the weather does, off-duty firefighting personnel are all on standby. The National Weather Service is now indicating that winds at the end of the week may be in the 20-30 mph range, a far cry from the 90-100 mph blasts that downed power lines and fueled last month’s Canyon Fire. Still, even these lower wind speeds constitute what agency officials call fire weather. Extra state firefighters will help patrol Malibu and other wildfire prone areas, Additional bulldozer teams and water tenders will be at the ready as well. The Forest Service also has brought in additional personnel and equipment to quickly respond to new blazes. The crews put their holiday celebrations on hold when the red flag waves.

We can contribute to their efforts by being aware of weather conditions and acting accordingly. If the weekend winds begin to build up speed, we should go over our household emergency plans. Better they be practiced unnecessarily than be put to the test on the front line. Malibu has much to be thankful for, as the local wildfire toll could have been much greater. The key sentiment now is preparedness.