These Orange County Fire Watchers Stand The Gap, Monitoring SCE Mountaintop Feeds & More

ORANGE COUNTY, CA —Hundreds of residents stand the gap between your home and wildfire. They are the Fire Watchers: those who volunteer time to monitor the brush and hillsides for the tell-tale signs of brushfires. Irvine Ranch Conservancy, its partners OC Parks, City of Irvine, City of Newport Beach and Orange County Fire Authority, are helping to reduce the number of catastrophic wildfires in local communities with the Orange County Fire Watch program.

There are 300 dedicated volunteers in the Fire Watch program who donate their time to reduce catastrophic wildfires through early reporting, education and deterrence.

Read: Make Your Home Defensible, Laguna Beach: Fire Chief Warns

Chances are, by the time you smell smoke near your Orange County home, they've already seen and reported it.

Wildfires are among the most destructive events that can occur in urban wildlands. Over the past 20 years, Orange County has seen an increase in major wildfire events, causing significant damage to local communities and wildlands. Fire watchers make sure departments are notified of events before they get out of control.

Last year, Orange County communities experienced three major wildfires that burned over 30,000 acres and forced more than 90,000 people to evacuate from their homes during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

Irvine Ranch Conservancy's Fire Watch Manager Tony Pointer is a large part of this process.

“The volunteers are a critical component of the Orange County Fire Watch program,” Pointer says. “With their help monitoring on the land and virtually, we can help reduce the number of wildfires that start and stop fire spread by quickly reporting smoke and other signs of fire.”

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Irvine Ranch Conservancy and OCFA train volunteers and staff to deploy to specific locations determined by fire spread research, historical ignition data, and participant safety requirements.

Fire Watchers are deployed on Flag Warning days, Santa Ana wind events, or in other special circumstances.

Fire Watch volunteers are also trained to monitor for signs of wildfire virtually with real-time SCE Alert Wildfire Cameras from the Operations Center in Irvine or their own home.

Irvine Ranch Conservancy and Fire Watch encourages Orange County residents to be wildfire ready this year with wildfire preparedness tips from OCFA.

Simple acts such as remaining vigilant during Red Flag Warnings, eliminating wildfire hazards near homes, vegetation management, knowing when to evacuate, and having a plan can help keep local communities and wildlands safe all help first responders successfully execute their job duties.

To learn more about how to prepare for a wildfire event, visit OCFA.org/RSG and watch a video about wildfire preparedness on YouTube with more helpful tips.

For more information about the Orange County Fire Watch program and Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks, visit LetsGoOutside.org.

Be sure to register for the AlertOC "life-or-death" emergency communication system and have your home evacuation plans ready.

Read also:

Dramatic Photos Show Overnight Fire Near Laguna Beach Food Pantry | Laguna Beach, CA Patch

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