“Urban Firestorm”; Orinda and Moraga Residents Are Waking Up to Terrifying Reality of Wildfire Risk
A recent article published in the San Francisco Chronicle has the Moraga and Orinda community on edge. Terrified, really, is a better word.
The article compared this region of the 925 to the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, specifically calling Moraga and Orinda “The Bay Area’s Pacific Palisades.”
The concern centers around the extremely high fire risk in Moraga and Orinda. One quote, in particular, stood out to me as shocking and more than a little scary: it said that if a big fire started in Moraga or Orinda, it wouldn’t be a wildfire but an “urban firestorm.”
This means we could potentially face a disaster on the scale of what happened in Los Angeles, with hundreds or even thousands of structures burning.
Local Risks
Another concern in the Moraga and Orinda area—which also played out in recent catastrophic fires like the Palisades fire and the devastating wildfires in Lahaina, Maui—is the challenge of evacuating semi-rural communities.
The Pacific Palisades had a handful of small roads that provided the only routes out of fire-affected areas. Similarly, according to the City of Lafayette fire plan—which also covers many neighborhoods either bordering or within the same fire protection district—choke points like Moraga Road, Reliez Valley Road, and St. Mary’s Road would easily become crowded and potentially blocked in the event of a big fire.
This would make the area much harder to evacuate. During the Palisades fire, people abandoned their cars on main roads to flee on foot, compounding the problem.
Fire officials warn that a similar dynamic could happen here. The narrow section of Moraga Road, which is already a pain during commutes and busy times, could become deadly if there’s a big fire.
It’s quite a bleak assessment, and it’s frightening to hear your community compared to one that recently suffered catastrophic destruction.
The good news, though, is that there’s a lot we can do—both in the Moraga/Orinda area and in other wildfire-impacted communities—to prepare for the possibility of a big fire.
The Best Way to Prepare
Overwhelmingly, the sources we reviewed and spoke to emphasized that hardening homes and whole communities against wildfires is the best way to prepare.
An ordinance in Orinda that would require a five-foot vegetation-free space around homes faced bitter opposition last year. Now that the community has seen the devastation a fire can wreak—even in wealthy areas—there may be more support for these kinds of difficult but probably necessary fire protection measures.
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Fire preparation often needs to be a collective effort. You can do everything to prepare your own home, but if the homes around you burn, you’ll still be at risk.
Even without an ordinance, there’s a lot that individuals can do to harden their homes against fires. Officials suggest removing vegetation, switching from wooden fences to less flammable materials like metal, installing screens on roof vents to prevent embers from entering, and taking other relatively inexpensive actions that can make a big difference.
Creating defensible space around your home matters, too.
Knowledge is power in this situation, too. Cal Fire has a great tool that lets you look up your wildfire zone and risk score for any address in California.
For instance, where I live in Lafayette, California, I’m happy to see that I’m in a relatively low-risk zone. If you look up your own address, you can see if you’re in a high fire severity area.
It’s also extremely important to sign up for Contra Costa’s community alert system. This will provide proactive alerts if a fire ever strikes, allowing you to evacuate.
You should know your evacuation routes in advance and communicate them to everyone in your family. It’s also essential to have a “go bag” with items like medication, food, water, pet supplies, and other essentials that you can grab quickly in case of evacuation.
One tool proven life-saving during the Los Angeles fires is an app called Watch Duty. It’s run by a nonprofit and aggregates information about evacuation zones and fires in real-time.
Even when Los Angelenos received accidental false alerts from official authorities, the Watch Duty app provided accurate updates on where evacuation lines were being drawn and where fires were burning.
You could download the app and familiarize yourself with it before any fire strikes. Even if there isn’t a major fire in your area, it can help you track small brushfires that might impact air quality.
It’s also important to recognize that local authorities are taking proactive measures to prevent wildfires. Fire authorities use techniques like prescribed burns to reduce fire risks by clearing out old vegetation.
There is a catch, though. If the air quality in the region is too low on the day of a prescribed burn, the burn will be canceled, leaving the vegetation in place for longer.
You can help by avoiding unnecessary smoke from fireplaces or fire pits, especially on spare-the-air days. Switching from wood-burning to propane alternatives can also make a difference.
Keeping the community’s air quality high reduces the chances of prescribed burns being canceled, allowing fire authorities to clear brush and vegetation more effectively.
There is Hope
The Palisades fire was a horrifying tragedy, and hearing that your own community faces a similar level of risk is deeply unsettling.
The only silver lining is that the devastation in Los Angeles may serve as a wake-up call for our community. Homeowners who previously resisted fire protection measures may now be more willing to implement them.
Homeowners in Moraga may also be less likely to wait for authorities to tell them what to do. Looking at the Palisades fire, it’s clear how quickly officials—despite doing their best—can be overwhelmed by the volume of calls and the region’s needs.
If people take it upon themselves to prepare their properties, harden their homes, and help neighbors (particularly those who may be elderly or unable to clear their space themselves), we can keep our community safer before a fire breaks out.
There are many success stories that should provide hope. For example, the community of Montecito near Santa Barbara faced a similar fire risk. By proactively mitigating the risk, they significantly reduced damage and avoided any deaths when a fire eventually broke out.
Even in a high-risk area, it’s possible to live as safely as possible. We just need to work together to make it happen.
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