Californians claim that fire evacuation notices came late and not everyone

Victims of a fire in Northern California believe that belated warnings from state officials and the reluctance of residents who survived previous fires to leave their homes were factors that contributed to the late and chaotic evacuation, which eventually resulted in most deadly in California history.

Фото: Depositphotos

Some of those who escaped from the fire last week believe that the leadership of Butt County should have done more to warn residents of Paradise and neighboring mountain communities when the fire began to move in the direction of these territories, writes NBC News.

Some residents are interested in why only a small number of people received notification of a fire.

"They definitely didn't do enough," said Christina Taft, whose 67-year-old mother disappeared after the fire. “She didn’t expect it to be so bad.” She expected someone to call her or otherwise let her know if it got really bad, but they didn't."

“They were careless, they just left people to fend for themselves. There is a reason why all these people are dead,” Taft added.

A resident of Magaliya, located about 8 miles west of the fire site, is unhappy with the work of the sheriff of Butt County and other officials, as he and his neighbors could not find any information about the dangerous fire even three hours after the firefighters left for the fire site. .

“We use an emergency warning system for tornado warnings. But this is a deadly fire. I don't remember there being any warning on the radio. People in the region are extremely worried, you need to provide them with at least some information,” said a resident of Magalia, who refused to give his name.

The Butte County Sheriff's Office said they delivered 5 fire alerts via email, 227 via phone (both land lines and cellular devices) and 25 via text.

“I wish we had the ability to send out more alerts, but unfortunately we didn’t,” the Butte County Sheriff said.

He emphasized that the unusually rapid progress of the fire in the south and west of Magalia and Paradise made it difficult to timely notify residents.

“You have to keep in mind that this was an extremely chaotic and rapidly evolving situation. The fire started in a remote area. It took firefighters some time to get there and try to determine the direction of the fire and whether it could pose a threat to populated areas. This takes time,” said Sheriff Corey Honea.

He added that perhaps some people had been warned and had not taken immediate action.

“We tried to evacuate tens of thousands of people from the area very quickly, and the fire also moved very quickly. And no matter what your plan is, no plan will ever work 100 percent if you're dealing with chaos like that,” the sheriff said.

As in other districts of the state, Butte has a system that allows residents to register for telephone alerts in case of emergencies.

A resident of the affected region, Savannah Rauscher, said that by the time she received this alert in 8: 30 in the morning, the ash was already circling around her family's house.

“We saw a wall of fire. Trees were already burning within 50 yards (46 m) of us, and the fire was moving at a rate of about 10 yards every two minutes. I had no idea it could happen so quickly,” the woman said.

Rauscher and her husband soon found themselves in a long and motionless line of cars. They managed to drive around the traffic jam in the oncoming lane, otherwise they risked dying right in the car.

In houses located on the ridges above the Sacramento Valley, many do not have high-quality mobile communications and access to Wi-Fi. This isolation could also prevent residents from being notified of a fire on time.

In addition, some residents of the region do not want to register to receive emergency messages from the government because of the unwillingness to provide their personal data to officials.

But even a subscription to the warnings was not a guarantee that they reached the addressee. Some residents have not received notifications.

Taft said that she desperately argued with her mother for more than an hour, trying to convince her to run. But there were no representatives of the sheriff demanding that residents evacuate. Therefore, the evacuation was unknown, and the wishful woman decided to stay.

When Taft reluctantly left her mother, she talked to her friend on the phone, and they both were sure that the fire would pass by the city, like the previous ones.

At the same time, many residents believe that officials should not be blamed, because strong winds made the progress so rapid that it was impossible to provide timely warnings for tens of thousands of people.

Recall that the fire started on Thursday, November 8, in the countryside of Bitt County, since the fire has destroyed more than 6 520 houses and 260 commercial buildings. In California fires this year already killed 48 people, hundreds are missing.

Read also on ForumDaily:

California resident told how he survived and where he hid during a fire in which all his friends died.

What will happen to cities that are completely burned out in California this week

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