La Honda will host wildland/urban fire drill Sunday

The community of La Honda will be the host of an area wide Wildland/ Urban Interface drill this coming Sunday July 23. The drill will start at 9:00 am. Its scenario involves a fast moving wildland fire making contact with multiple homes simultaneously. The training will test firefighters’ abilities to organize, rapidly deploy and control an urban interface type fire. Over a dozen local residents have agreed to allow their homes to be incorporated into this drill. At each of these homes firefighters will be making critical decisions involving the appropriate actions to take and the safety of the public and their own crews. No live fire will be used in this training.

This drill will mimic portions of the Bay Area’s most damaging interface fires. Over the last 15 years, 17,000 acres have burned and 3,131 homes have been lost to the largest of these fires. These include: the 1991 Oakland Hills “Tunnel Fire”, the 1995 Marin County “Vision Fire” and the 2002 Santa Clara “Croy Fire”. “Being prepared for this type of incident is critical. It’s especially important this year with fire conditions becoming more critical each day” said Larry Whitney, Chief of the La Honda Volunteer Fire Dept.

Engines from the La Honda and Kings Mountain Volunteer Fire Departments, the San Mateo County Fire Department, the Woodside Fire Protection District and the California Department of Forestry will be participating in this drill. This drill will also be a test for a new state-of-the-art Wildland/Interface Fire Engine capable of producing large volumes of fire-suppressing foam. The foam can be used to pre-treat homes prior to arrival of any fire. This increases a home’s chances of survival and firefighter safety. This engine was purchased by the La Honda Fire Dept. through a grant from the Federal Department of Homeland Security.