Jerry Vandermeulen says that residents now need to stay ready for fires year-round
When Jerry Vandermeulen became Malibu’s first fire safety liaison in 2019, the idea of a “fire season” still carried weight. Residents braced for the late summer and fall months when Santa Ana winds could whip a spark into a citywide disaster. Today, Vandermeulen says, that framing no longer applies.
“Fire season is pretty much all year-round,” said Vandermeulen, who serves as one of three part-time Malibu fire safety liaisons. “A few years ago, we had a lot of rain and moisture in the chaparral. But now we’re in another drought situation. Fires can occur all year-round.”
Still, he noted, October and November remain the most dangerous months, when Santa Ana winds — blowing out of inland valleys — become “the game changer when it comes to wildfires.”
With 35 years of firefighting under his belt, serving with Kern and Ventura County fire departments, Vandermeulen has watched residents grow more engaged in wildfire preparation since the Woolsey Fire. He stressed that “ember hardening” homes — installing ember-resistant vents, clearing the first five feet around structures, and upgrading roofing — is critical. But he says it’s not enough for one household to act alone. “If one person does ember hardening and their neighbor doesn’t, their house can be just as susceptible as if they never did it. I’ve seen homes with everything done right still lost because the houses next door were not prepared.”
That’s where the Firewise program, explained in The Malibu Times last week, comes in, encouraging neighbors to coordinate mitigation efforts together.
Still, Vandermeulen urges Malibu residents to stay ready year-round by keeping “go bags” at the ready to be filled with medication, important documents, and pet supplies. Maintain vehicles with enough fuel or charge for a quick escape. Have at least two planned exit routes because you may not know in advance where a fire is coming from. Set up out-of-town contacts and monitor disasters on apps such as Watch Duty or Pulse Point. And in an evacuation, the fire expert stressed, “Leave early. If you wait too long, your exit route may be blocked off. Once emergency vehicles are trying to come in while people are still trying to get out, it creates chaos.”
Vandermeulen addressed the debate that divides many in the firefighting community, and a recent shift in messaging by Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone. On a Sept. 2 CBS television broadcast, Marrone acknowledged that in a major conflagration, firefighting resources may never be sufficient to protect every home, as was seen in the Woolsey, Palisades, and Eaton fires. On the broadcast, Marrone stated, “We’ve always told people that when the evacuation order comes, you must leave. We’ve departed from that narrative. With the proper training, with the proper equipment, and with the proper home hardening and defensible space, you can stay behind and prevent your house from burning down. There simply aren’t enough firefighters or engines to defend every home.”
It’s an approach Vandermeulen doesn’t agree with, countering, “We don’t recommend that people do that as individuals. I get the idea in concept. However, there’s a couple of problems with it, and one thing that people may be using as a justification is we do have some community fire brigades now, which did an outstanding job during the Palisades Fire and the Franklin Fire, but the thing with them is that they’ve received some training. They are endorsed and backed by the LA County Fire Department. They’re trained. They have what we call PPE or personal protective equipment. They work together and they have a leader that has communications with somebody on the incident so there’s accountability for where they’re at and what’s going on, and where they’re allowed to go and where they can’t go, so that’s different from somebody staying by themselves. A lot of times, you think you’re good until you’re not good, and once a wildland fire goes from a wildland fire into homes, it becomes what we call an urban conflagration, and it gets hotter. It gets more intense, and then one house goes to two homes, and it just grows and grows, and it just becomes untenable and unsafe to be there. If you’ve never experienced or faced it firsthand, it’s pretty scary. It’s pretty overwhelming.”
Vandermeulen concluded, “We want to hit home that we’re all a part of being prepared. We encourage residents to be proactive. Make defensible space, do home hardening and have a plan.”