The deadliest wildfire in California history did not prompt local authorities to blast out alerts via cell phones, TV, and radio stations. Neither did the wine country fires the year before.
In 2019, California state leaders are pushing local leaders in the counties of the state to plan in advance to use these wide-reaching alerts, hoping to prevent future fires from growing even deadlier. "I'm relatively confident that by this fire season all the counties will have those protocols implemented in new procedures and be ready to go," State Emergency Chief Mark Ghilarducci told ABC10 Monday.
Ghilarducci heads CalOES, the state's emergency services agency, which published a set of guidelines this year aimed at helping counties to do better.
"Do not wait to evacuate," Ghilarducci said in a press conference about the oncoming fire season. "If told to evacuate, do so."
The 2018 Camp Fire killed a record 85 people when high winds dropped embers onto the town of Paradise and surrounding neighborhoods.