Californians in Wildfires Save Neighbors’ Lives with Better Communication

A local network in fire-prone Sonoma County, California, is saving homes and lives by focusing on improved communication between citizens, doctors and firemen.

“Two years ago, none of us had any idea what to do,” says Margie Hanselman, whose home in northern California was threatened by a wildfire at the time, with the fire crew already busy attending to another blaze. “Today I feel much more secure and confident.”

After the scare she faced two years ago, Hanselman gathered with her neighbors and fire officials in the dry, rural forest area to turn to their phones, using apps, social media and communications technology to share news, emergency updates and evacuation and preparation advice in their neighborhood of Healdsburg. Together with nurse practitioner Priscilla Abercrombie, they put together a local COPE team – Citizens Organized to Prepare for Emergencies – remodeled based on an original COPE team that started nearby in Santa Rosa after the Tubbs fire in 2017 killed over 20 people.

Unlike the windy fires of two years ago in the San Francisco Bay area, which altogether killed 43 people, the Kincade wildfire in October 2019 kept everyone safe. “We made a huge difference in this fire, compared to the last one, simply because we were ready for it,” says Healdsburg Fire Marshal Linda Collister, who integrated the local COPE network with mobile messaging app GroupMe to better share information that in the recent Kincade fire – which burned around 80,000 acres – helped safely evacuate those in risk.