El Dorado County Public Safety Digest

The South Lake Tahoe City Council voted to sign a five-year lease for city offices, discussed housing initiatives, and voted for a program focused on first responders.

El Dorado County Fire and the Diamond Springs-El Dorado Fire Protection District may soon be parts of a greater whole.

Early planning stages on the Trip to Green project have begun following the 2022 pilot program. A city workshop shared data collected from the test sessions and presented concepts for where to go next.

Steve Leighton, fire chief for Meeks Bay and North Tahoe fire protection districts, says the best way to stay safe is to plan and be prepared before a weather event arrives.

After years of struggling to find solutions to congestion issues during high-traffic periods along Highway 50 in Placerville, the Trip to Green program was initiated in fall 2022.

The strong storm system moving into Lake Tahoe on Jan. 10 is affecting travel, closing schools and possibly creating delays at ski resorts.

In anticipation of hazardous conditions from stormy weather, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office sent an alert to smartphones on Jan 4. The only problem? Few were able to read the warning for nearly 20 minutes.

South Lake Tahoe Fire Chief Jim Drennan has selected Captain Justin Keys as battalion chief and Cpt. Kim George as fire marshal, effective Dec. 10 and Jan. 9 respectively.

The El Dorado County Fire Protection District has committed to staffing an additional ambulance that will restore a gap in services that occurred when staffing shortages shut down Diamond Springs Medic 49. The medic unit is expected to be back in service early spring.

Following years of research and analysis of current fire trends, Cal Fire will update its map of fire hazard severity zones that ranks rural and unincorporated areas based on anticipated risk of wildfires.

El Dorado County is starting its bidding process to find a company to remove debris left in the Mosquito Fire’s path. The forest fire burned more than a dozen homes in the Volcanoville area.

Fires aren’t the only dangers fought by the El Dorado Hills Fire Department. The process of decreasing other hazards has been streamlined, as was detailed by Fire Marshall Chrishana Fields at a recent Area Planning Advisory Committee meeting.

Higher monthly bills might jolt PG&E customers in the wake of the utility's request for additional revenue due to the company's spending on wildfire mitigation and catastrophic events.

Facing a mental health crisis, Cal Fire crews sought less of a workload. But they have to wait two years under their new contract.

The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved revised EDH Fire Department development impact mitigation fees.

Members of Congress are inquiring about a failed U.S Forest Service plan that could have saved Grizzly Flat from destruction. In a Nov. 18 letter, lawmakers demanded answers on shortcomings of the Forest Service’s Trestle Forest Health Project.

Members of the Diamond Springs-El Dorado Community Coalition collected signatures in opposition to housing developments proposed for the Diamond Springs-El Dorado area, which they say would add to traffic congestion and fire evacuation concerns.

The El Dorado County Fire Protection District got a lower ISO rating, but that didn’t stop its fire insurance costs from nearly doubling. “We’re able to pay the bill but that equates to other areas of the budget being trimmed,” the fire chief said.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company is offering direct payments for those whose homes were destroyed in the 2022 Mosquito Fire. In a filing with the SEC, executives project a "probable" loss of $100 million in connection to the forest fire.

The sounds of hammers striking nails and tractors navigating across dirt pathways are music to El Dorado Hills Deputy Fire Chief Dustin Hall's ears.

Bureau of Reclamation contracts goats to devour brush in Auburn State Recreation Area; prevention work will extend for years, but no trail closures anticipated.

State regulators plan to impose a $155.4 million fine against PG&E Corp. over the Zogg Fire, which killed four people in Shasta County. PG&E is already under criminal indictment in the fire, and has pleaded innocent to manslaughter and other charges.

Scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno, are using a variety of new technologies with massive amounts of data and computational power to model and map fire-vulnerable forest vegetation across millions of acres in California.

The Mosquito Fire is 100 percent contained, according to an incident report from the U.S. Forest Service, though smoke from “small islands of unburned vegetation within the perimeter may be more visible on Monday as drier conditions arrive.”

Gas stoves in California homes are leaking cancer-causing benzene, researchers found in a new study, though they say more research is needed to understand how many homes have leaks.

A study by researchers at UCLA and the University of Chicago says that California’s wildfires of 2020 destroyed 4.2 million acres of forest—and erased years of progress the state made on battling climate change.

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, trying to ease an insurance crisis that’s hurt rural California, has announced that all carriers active in fire-prone communities must incorporate his “Safer from Wildfires” program into their premiums.

According to the first in a series of reports to come from a consulting firm hired by California officials, PG&E’s efforts to improve wildfire safety are hindered by aging equipment, damaged power poles and hazardous trees that went undetected by the utility’s crews.

One of California’s top elected officials announced steps to limit how developments can be built in areas that are at highest risk of wildfire. Attorney General Rob Bonta released guidelines for local governments to follow when they are deciding whether to approve subdivisions in the “wildland urban interface.”

The growth and spread of algae is one reason blue lakes around the world can go green in the summer. Most algae in Lake Tahoe does not pose a health risk to people or animals. Keep Tahoe Blue offers tips on dealing harmful algal blooms.

A Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Response team is assessing federal lands burned in the Mosquito Fire, with the goal of ensuring safety for all in the Tahoe and Eldorado national forests, and YubaNet features many of the images captured by the team.

National Fire Prevention Week, established in remembrance of the Chicago Fire of 1891, has been observed starting the second Sunday in October since 1922. It is the longest-running health and safety observance on record, according to the National Archives and Records Administration.