Fire Prevention & Safety
Fire Prevention and Safety have become important issues in our daily lives especially in the Alexander Valley after the Kincade Fire in 2019.
Defensible space, coupled with home hardening, is essential to improve your home’s chance of surviving a wildfire. Defensible space is the buffer you create between a building on your property and the grass, trees, shrubs, or any wildland area that surround it. This space is needed to slow or stop the spread of wildfire and it helps protect your home from catching fire—either from embers, direct flame contact or radiant heat. Proper defensible space also provides firefighters a safe area to work in, to defend your home. (As stated from CalFire)
Download the Wildfire is Coming, Are You Ready brochure to get your home ready for wildfire
Defensible Space Around Your Home
COPE Neighborhood Groups:
Communities Organized to Prepare for Emergencies
The mission of COPE is to help residents, families, visitors, and neighbors become and remain better prepared to respond to and recover from emergency situations.
COPE is a model for public safety organizations and citizens based upon neighbor helping neighbor in preparing for an emergency with the goal to ensure the next emergency can be mitigated as efficiently as possible with the least amount of loss of life and property.
Join your local COPE group or start one in your neighborhood.
COPE Groups in Alexander Valley today include:
COPE Eastern Alexander Valley
This area includes residents of Geysers Road, Red Winery Road and the beginning of Pine Flat Road.
Sarah Hafner - sarah.hafner30@gmail.com
Melinda Barnard - barnard@sonoma.edu
Karin Warnelius-Miller – karin@gardencreekvineyards.com
COPE East Soda Rock
This area includes residents of East Soda Rock Road.
Dyan Urban – Email coming soon
Stay informed - Important Links
SoCoAlert – Create a managed account to receive urgent notifications about local emergencies by phone and/or text message. Powered by CodeRED.
Nixle – Text your zip code to 888777 to opt-in or sign up online to receive email, text or voice messages with alerts and advisories from local law enforcement.
Get a NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) and leave it on at all times. When activated by an event, these radios generate an alarm, voice alert, and flasher. Sonoma County residents may tune their NOAA radio to frequency 162.475. If you are deaf or have hearing loss these radios have add-on equipment such as strobe lights and bed shakers to help alert everyone in the household that action is needed in an emergency.
WatchDuty – developed by a local COPE member. Their mission is to publish only the facts that provide true situational awareness in case of emergency, without editorialization or prediction.
PulsePoint – a 911-connected app that can immediately inform you of
emergencies occurring in your community and can request your help when CPR is needed nearby. PulsePoint Respond is not available in all areas.
GroupMe – an app that helps people connect simultaneously. COPE has a GroupMe for Leaders so important information can be shared quickly in an incident. Some local neighborhood groups have also established their own groups for this purpose.
One Call Now is an app that delivers your messages to everybody on your designated contact list. Send messages as your choice of a phone call, SMS text message, email or push notification. Many COPE communities use this for internal communications.
Resources during an Incident
Websites
Sonoma County Sheriff – Nixles
SoCoEmergency.org
City of Healdsburg
Supervisor Gore District 4 – Sign up for emails
Alert Wildfire Cameras
PG&E PSPS and Power status
CalFire Incident Maps
NASA FIRMS
#Firemappers
NWCG
Sonoma County Fire Maps
Sonoma County Road Closures
CalOES
Sartopo
Flood Info
National Weather Service Advisories
Flood Forecast Hotline: (707) 526-4768
Stream Maintenance: (707) 543-3800 or (707) 543-3805 After Hours.
Sewage Emergency Hotline: (707) 543-4200 or (707) 543-3805 After Hours
Apps
Broadcastify
Watch Duty
Pulsepoint
Local Radio
KSRO 103.5 FM, 94.5FM, 1350 AM – Website
KCBS 106.9 FM, 740 AM
CalFire Lake Napa Unit (LNU)
Sonoma County Sheriff – Daily briefings with CalFire
Supervisor Gore – daily videos and updates
County of Sonoma
Sonoma County Dept of Emergency Management – Daily briefings during incident, educational events
News of the Northbay – video updates
City of Healdsburg
City of Santa Rosa
Wind, Weather, and Air Quality
Windy.com – Real time wind activity in the area and forecasted wind patterns for 72 hours
Purpleair.com – Real time air quality, including PM 2.5
Fire.airnow.gov – Click on yellow dot on side bar for legend
NOAA Weather Forecast – Will show forecasted wind events, red flags, etc.
Red Flag Warning NWS – Fire weather watch or RFW