The tragedy that has ensued from the fires scorching Southern California has prompted San Jose’s mayor to call on the city to provide an assessment of what steps it is taking to safeguard residents from a similarly harrowing ordeal.
In a letter to City Manager Jennifer Maguire Friday, Mayor Matt Mahan said residents have inundated his office with inquiries and concerns over what the city is doing to prevent and contain wildfires, including in the wildland-urban interface along the city’s eastern and southern borders.
Mahan is also asking the council to identify potential future investments ahead of this year’s budget sessions.
“There’s a lot we still don’t know about what, if anything, the city could’ve done differently, but it certainly has prompted me to want to review everything we’re doing, particularly for emergency response,” Mahan told The Mercury News.
The fires in Southern California have burned close to 40,000 acres, killing at least 24 people and destroying more than 12,000 structures since they began on Jan. 7 without full containment as extreme weather conditions have contributed to preventing emergency disaster personnel from getting firmer control of the blazes.
The Southern California fires required manpower and resources from across the state — including dozens of firefighters from agencies in Santa Clara County — and throughout the country and even Mexico.
Local and state responses to the fire also have led to fierce political backlash — including threats of withholding federal aid — against Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass over perceived missteps, including questions about brush management and reductions in funding for equipment and personnel.
Questions have also swirled about an empty reservoir in the Palisades Highlands — close to the ignition site of the Palisades Fire — as well as why firefighters failed to have adequate water pressure, leaving residents wondering if the same type of situation could strike San Jose.
Earlier this week, District 7 Councilmember and retired firefighter Bien Doan called on the city to include improved fire protection as part of its legislative priorities in the coming year by hiring more fire personnel, conducting more controlled burns, improving code enforcement, and removing combustible vegetation from hillsides.
“As a retired fire captain, I cannot emphasize the importance of this enough,” Doan said. “It’s not if, but when this will happen to our surrounding neighbors. If it’s predictable, it’s preventable and it’s our responsibility to make sure that this doesn’t happen.”
Mahan noted that San Jose’s previous City Councils and administrations had committed to investing in disaster preparedness and improving community safety through building a new Emergency Operations Center, three new fire stations, updating evacuation plans and funding vegetation management in high-risk areas, which he said the state has struggled to address adequately.
“(The state) has inadvertently increased the risk of more intense fires that are more destructive because we have accumulated a lot of fuel … the state clearly needs to do more prescribed burns, more mowing, use livestock to graze and vegetation control of invasive species,” Mahan said. “We need to invest more and I suspect that the state and the federal government will make more resources available for the West to reduce fuel load. We want as a city to compete for those dollars and do our utmost to protect our residents, so I want to see an assessment of what we’re doing, what we would do with incremental funding and what our strategy is for securing funding over time.”
Along with receiving more information about those efforts, he said the City Council and community would benefit from learning about the city’s water availability, brush abatement efforts, and what steps private property owners can take to reduce risks.
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Although he called the politicization of the Southern California disaster “detestable,” Mahan said it was imperative for the state to further address future fire prevention and recovery efforts in the budget.
“It clearly needs to put more funding into reserves or contingency funds that are for this very purpose for rapid response to disasters,” Mahan said. “That’s especially true if we don’t believe that we can rely on the federal government to be there quickly and get aid to those who need it.”
