When hell unleashed itself on San Diego County beginning Sunday, Oct. 21, most of us couldn’t imagine the power of Mother Nature to destroy so much so fast. University City residents held their collective breath as they stared at the canyons that make living here so attractive. However, UC residents did more than just stare at the canyons and stare at the TV news coverage of the fires. A lot of folks got mobilized to help the victims who were growing in number at shelters such as Qualcomm Stadium.
After the Cedar fire four years ago, a program called CERT, Community Emergency Response Team, was instituted so that San Diego residents could be trained professionally to assist in emergencies like this horrific fire.
The volunteers of the North Coastal Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), covering University City and La Jolla, have been trained by San Diego Fire-Rescue Department personnel for just such an emergency as the October fires. CERT teams from across San Diego served well in their roles, according to Susan Hathaway, a UC resident and North Coastal CERT Team leader.
Approximately 107 CERT Team members from across the city reported for duty during the first days of the raging fires. The staging point Hathaway reported to was at the fire department’s repair facility and Fire Station 28 on Kearny Villa Road across from the Sheraton Four-Point Resort. Kearny Villa Road from Aero Drive to the Route 163 north on-ramp was closed to the public, while firefighters and members of CERT worked together.
All CERT members received an email at 8:34 a.m. Monday, Oct. 22, that CERT volunteers were needed. Like a lot of University City residents, Hathaway was reluctant to leave her home for fear the high-powered winds could drive the fire to our UC canyons and eventually our homes. Hathaway notified the CERT Liaison Team that she would be available for the Tuesday night shift, confident our community would know its fire status by then. Liana Ma was another North Coastal CERT member who reported for duty during the emergency.
However, Tuesday morning saw Hathaway joining the team at the Kearny Villa base camp. Her assignment was to check firefighters in and out, under the direction of on-site fire department personnel. CERT provided support at the Kearny Villa camp, Qualcomm Stadium and two other staging areas in North County. CERT members remained on the job at Kearny Villa until Friday evening, when the staging area closed and fire crews returned to their home fire stations.
“It was a small part and I was glad to do it,” Hathaway said. “I worked from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. that Tuesday. We contributed manpower that freed up fire people to do their job. When those exhausted firefighters returned from their 12- to 18-hour sifts, some of them still managed to give us a hug in appreciation for our work.”
If you are interested in joining CERT, please contact the program offices at San Diego Fire-Rescue Department headquarters, (619) 533-3075. You can also go to their website, sandiego.gov/fireandems/cert. Unfortunately, it isn’t a matter of if the fire seasons of the future will have Mother Nature ready for a return performance, it is a matter of when.
It looks as though a fire station will go in at Nobel Drive near the new library and recreation center eventually. Let’s do more than hope that a fire station will also go in somewhere along Governor Drive. Apparently the city owns the land on the far west end of Governor Drive wedged between the Mormon Meeting House and the University City United Church on Stresemann. Would that be a good place for a South UC fire station? The water company owns the land west of the Park and Ride and east of McElroy Field on the east end of Governor. While it is definitely difficult to build on as-is, would that be a good place to build a fire station? UC dodged the bullet this time, as the saying goes. Next time?