SPECIAL: Ensuring Burbank's Safety and Preparedness with Eric Baumgardner

What does it take to keep a city like Burbank safe and prepared for emergencies? Join us as we highlight insights from Eric Baumgardner, the Emergency Management Coordinator for the Burbank Fire Department, who shares his extensive expertise in handling the intricacies of emergency management. Discover the essential role of collaboration in emergency management and how Burbank’s community-focused strategies cover all bases—from mitigation and preparedness to response and coordination. Eric’s unique position involves working with local, state, and neighboring city agencies, ensuring that Burbank remains resilient in the face of potential hazards.

We unravel the complexities of mutual aid systems, spotlighting how fire services across the Verdugo area come together to efficiently tackle large-scale incidents. Learn about the seamless deployment of resources, such as air utility vehicles, which bolster response capabilities without taxing any single department. The cooperation extends beyond fire services, with Area C playing a pivotal role in coordinating law enforcement and disaster management across Burbank and its surrounding regions. Eric provides a fascinating look at the assembly of strike teams and task forces, highlighting the robust frameworks that ensure a coordinated response to emergencies like wildfires.

As we face the challenges of 2025, from potential storms to earthquake readiness, Eric emphasizes the importance of proactive community engagement. Reflecting on past incidents like the La Tuna Fire, we discuss how infrastructure improvements and regular public awareness initiatives have enhanced the city's resilience. We underscore the necessity of individual preparedness with resources such as ReadyBurbank.org and Alert Burbank, encouraging listeners to actively participate in building a safer community. Eric’s passion for emergency management is evident throughout our conversation, offering listeners valuable insights into the often unseen yet vital preparations that keep Burbank ready for any disaster.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
From deep in the Burbank Media District.
It's time for another editionof my Burbank Talks, presented
by the staff of my Burbank.
Now let's see what's on today'sagenda as we join our program.
Hello Burbank, craig Sherwoodhere with you once again.
A very interesting show ininteresting times.
I've got Eric Baumgardner withme today from the Burbank Fire

(00:22):
Department and let me give you alittle background on Eric.
Eric Baumgardner serves as theEmergency Management Coordinator
for the City of Burbank FireDepartment.
He has responded to numerousstate and national incidents of
significance, including multiplegovernor-proclaimed emergencies
and presidentially declareddisasters across multiple states

(00:44):
emergencies and presidentiallydeclared disasters across
multiple states.
Eric has been deployed by theCalifornia Office of Emergency
Services on Emergency ManagementMutual Aid Requests to assist
other agencies in theiremergency operations, centers in
various roles and is alsodeployed as part of an incident
management team for fieldresponse.
He serves or has served onnumerous technical committees

(01:05):
with the County of Los Angelesor the State of California,
including the State EOCCredentialing Program Steering
Committee and the StateStandardized Emergency
Management System TechnicalCommittee.
Eric has been a public safetyprofessional for over 20 years,
specializing in emergencymanagement.
Prior to his career with theCity of Burbank, eric served as
the emergency coordinator withthe County of Los Angeles and

(01:26):
then with the city of LosAngeles.
Eric has served as an expertwitness for emergency planning
for the United States DistrictCourt and has testified for the
state assembly as an emergencymanagement subject matter expert
.
A lot of stuff going on.
So, eric, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Thank you for having me A pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Well, I think this is really interesting because the
times we're in right now.
So let's start off.
We heard your professional side.
Let's hear a little about yourprofessional side.
I mean your personal side, ifyou don't mind.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, I actually have ties to the community.
So I was actually born here inthe city of Burbank back when
there was a Burbank communityhospital a long, long, long time
ago, grew up in the area.
I grew up in Glendale and whenmy parents bought a house we
moved back to Burbank.
I've been a longtime Burbankresidence ever since then when I
moved out.
I've stayed local to Burbank.
Since then when I moved out,I've stayed local to Burbank

(02:23):
since then.
So not only do I work in thecity of Burbank and serve the
community of Burbank, I haveties to the city with my friends
and family being here.
So I have skin in the game whenit comes to what I do with the
city.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Fantastic, I think you know I've seen every time
something goes on that's big.
There you are at city councilmeetings briefing the council
and the public Briefing thepublic because the council
already knows in advance.
I'm sure you send them updatesimmediately when things go on.
Let's start off by asking whatthe emergency management

(02:57):
coordinator does, and what doesemergency management mean for
the city of Burbank?

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, that's a great thing.
So emergency management isunique.
Everybody always Burbank yeah,that's a great thing.
So emergency management isunique.
Everybody always sees firetrucks going down the street,
police cars going down thestreet, even water and power,
public works, parks andrecreation.
Pretty much they know whatthese different agencies do day
to day.
Emergency management is more ofa behind the scenes thing.
In the city of Burbank itresides within the fire
department.
With most cities here in LosAngeles County If they've got an
incorporated city with a firedepartment, with most cities

(03:24):
here in Los Angeles County Ifthey've got an incorporated city
with a fire department, theemergency management role lies
within the fire department.
Larger cities, like the city ofLos Angeles, have a dedicated
department just for emergencymanagement.
Emergency management really isthe behind the scenes
coordination for everything.
We have four phases technicallyfive, but I'll go into the four
phases that we're responsiblefor.

(03:44):
First thing that we do is we'reresponsible for everything.
We have four phases technicallyfive, but I'll go into the four
phases that we're responsiblefor.
First thing that we do is we'reresponsible for mitigation
looking at different hazardsthat might impact our
jurisdiction and how can welessen the impacts of those
hazards Prior to an incident, ofcourse, yes, prior to an
incident.
So we know that it's SouthernCalifornia, we have earthquakes,
wildfires, things like that.

(04:04):
So we look at all of thepossible hazards and it's our
job to look at how do wemitigate those effects to the
city.
After we look at what we can doto mitigate, well, we can't
remove the threat altogether.
So then we go into ourpreparedness phase, where we
prepare both the community aswell as the city departments or
the jurisdiction to respond tosuch an incident.
So we want to make sure thatwe're doing both our internal

(04:25):
preparedness making sure ourdepartments are well aware of
what their roles andresponsibilities are in
emergency as well as thatexternal preparedness.
So you'll see me out atdifferent fire prevention things
or disaster preparedness eventswhere we're really trying to
educate the public that theyneed to take some responsibility
and be prepared, make a plan,have a kit.
Next we move into our responsephase.

(04:45):
So when the incident doeshappen, we go into that response
mode and while you see firedepartment responding to the
fires law, responding tocriminal offense, emergency
management is really theorchestrator behind everything.
We're kind of like thatorchestra conductor.
I don't make the music and Idon't play the instruments.
My job is really to look atwhat would best sound right in

(05:06):
this orchestra and what theyshould actually be playing in
that tempo.
So my job is really tocoordinate our internal agencies
, so our city agencies, as wellas coordinating with neighboring
cities and state and localofficials, and coordinate those
things that we might need formutual aid or things like that.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Right.
So you're not at the scenesaying, okay, you know, and
engine 11, go over there and hit, you know, hit that exposure.
You're, you're, you're bigpicture Correct.
And you're not.
You're at the scene directingpersonnel.
You're, you're looking at,assessing the entire situation.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Correct.
I might be at the scene, but myjob is not to handle tactical
response.
My job is to be there as anadvisor.
So our incident commander maybefrom the fire department or
whoever is leading this, they'llbe responsible for all the
tactical operations.
If it's a wildland fire,they're responsible for it.
I'm there really listening towhat they're doing and trying to
think ahead.

(05:59):
If we're starting to doevacuations, it's my job to
start thinking about shelteroperations and making sure that
we have a shelter and a placefor people to go.
It's my job, when we have thatwildfire, to also start thinking
about the future with recoveryefforts and, depending on when
we have it like the Eaton Fireis a great example Late in the
year like this, where we're inwinter and there's rain right

(06:19):
around the corner making surethat we're taking those efforts
immediately to make sure thatwe're prepared for that next
tragedy that we might have.
So I'm looking at the strategiclevel stuff while the incident
commander is looking at thetactical level stuff.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Okay, wow, it's a lot of responsibility actually.
So in August of 1979, burbankFire Department went on to
Glendale, pasadena, formedVerdugo Fire Communications and
merged the three cities togetherto dispatch, and by 2000, there
were six more cities who joinedand now there are up to 14

(06:56):
agencies that Verdugo dispatchesfor.
So I remember the old days of,you know, we just had single, a
single number on our engine,except for we had old engine 11A
, yes, but you know now Burbankcan all have are the 10s,
glendale's in the 20s, pasadena30s and so on and so on.

(07:17):
Each city they have their firsttwo numbers that are identified
, or their first number,depending on how many numbers
there are.
Numbers are identified, or thefirst number, depending on how
many numbers there are.
Why is Verdugo and not havingit centrally located only like
it used to be, and our policestill are?
But why is Verdugo a good thingfor Burbank?

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah.
So a lot of people, as to yourpoint, when they see our fire
engines they think we have waymore fire stations than we
actually have because of ournumbering system.
They might see engine 16 goingdown the street thinking we have
16 fire engines.
But yes, verdugo FireCommunication Center is our
central point.
It's got 14 agencies, 13 citiesand one joint powers authority

(08:00):
being the airport.
With that, the way we number ourresources is, for example,
burbank, we're Battalion 1.
So our Battalion Chief iscalled Battalion 1 on the radio
and then all of our apparatus oreverything else is Engine 11,
engine 12, engine 13.
And you can think of that firstdigit as the Battalion number.

(08:21):
So Battalion 1, engine one isengine 11.
We move over into Glendale,that's battalion two.
That's why all their stuffstarts with a two and so forth.
It's a good thing because weactually run what we call an
automatic aid system.
So we've kind of run like aborderless fire department, even
though we're each autonomousfire departments with our own

(08:43):
administration, even thoughwe're each autonomous fire
departments with our ownadministration, our own budget
and we are responsible to ourcity and our constituents when
it comes to response, to improvethat response and make sure we
have better response times andwe can serve the public with
specialized equipment that mightnot be available in each of the
cities.
We run a borderless fire system, so the closest appropriate

(09:04):
apparatus may be what responds.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Let me get into that a little bit.
So you're talking about an airutility, you're talking about a
rescue cushion.
Different cities have thesethings, so they would only like
one city has it for all thecities and they dispatch to any
city that needs it.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Correct.
So for us we don't have our ownfull USAR component.
We do have personnel who aretrained in USAR and we do have
USAR tools and equipment on ourladder trucks.
But to actually have a fullUSAR component, we either have a
city of Glendale respondinginto the city of Burbank or city
of Pasadena responding in.
They have full USAR componentsfor the Verdugo system.

(09:43):
As such, we provide a fullcomplement for a hazardous
materials response.
So if something's going on inanother city that needs a
hazardous materials response,although they might have
personnel that have gone throughhazardous materials training,
our team is the one that wouldactually respond, along with
possibly Glendale's hazmat team.
So we would respond on thathazmat capability.

(10:05):
You had mentioned air.
So we have air utility vehiclesas well.
We have a large structure fireor something of a hazmat that
requires us to change out airbottles frequently.
Each of our rigs carry spareair bottles.
Our ladder trucks, our enginecompanies, ambulances, they can
change out air bottles, but atsome point we're going to need
more than what we even carry onthe rigs.
So we do have air utilityvehicles also spread out

(10:26):
throughout the uh, throughoutthe Verdugo system, and air
utility can be assigned as wellto refill bottles on site.
So it's instead of eachdepartment having to invest the
money into all the specializedequipment that may sit around
and not be used.
Um, all the time the equipmentis spread out through the
different agencies and whenneeded it responds from that

(10:49):
agency to a neighboring city.
But it's not just ourspecialized equipment.
You might be like on the bordernear Burbank and Glendale and
there might be a trafficcollision and you might actually
see a Burbank fire engine and aGlendale ladder truck because
they were the two closestappropriate apparatus to respond
to that call.
So it's not uncommon, even fornon big events where we need

(11:11):
specialized equipment, for ourunits to cross borders just
because they are the closestunit to that scene.
For example, we're over here inDistrict 12's area.
For truck 12 to get all the wayup on the hill for something is
going to take a little bitlonger than possibly something
coming from Glendale if ithappens to be over in 27's area.

(11:33):
So we want to make sure that wecan get the closest equipment
there quickly.
It's really for the benefit ofthe community.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
It basically streamlines everything and
response times go down foreverything.
So it makes it a good thing.
It's mutually beneficial toeverybody.
Okay, let's expand it a littleand now talk about Area C, which
now you know Verdugo, burbank,of course, is part of.
Area C, is now a larger area,so talk about what they call
Area C.
Yeah, so Area.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
C is what we call a mutual aid area.
Now Area C is broken upslightly differently depending
on the discipline.
So we have three different AreaCs.
We've got law enforcementmutual aid Area C, we've got
disaster management Area C andthen we've got fire Area C.
And the reason why the bordersare slightly different for
example, emergency managementArea C incorporates the city of

(12:21):
San Fernando as well as lawenforcement mutual aid
incorporates the city of SanFernando as well as law
enforcement mutual aidincorporates the city of San
Fernando into it, but fire areac does not, because the city of
San Fernando contracts to LAcity fire department.
So there's slight differencesin the borders.
But area c pretty much is forthe most part Burbank to the far
west and then along thefoothill communities going east

(12:43):
along the 210 corridor.
So within that, any one ofthose three disciplines that I
just talked about eitheremergency management, fire or
law we have mutual aid plansalready in place or automatic
aid in the case of Verdugo.
The nice thing about Verdugo isArea C lines up with our
Verdugo cities, so it makes itmore of an automatic aid versus

(13:05):
a mutual aid type situationwhere they're already being
dispatched by one centralizeddispatch entity.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
Many times when there's a large brush fire
somewhere in Santa Barbara,somewhere else, they always will
they will contact Verdugo andthey want a task force.
So I guess that would be anArea C task force.
Is that correct?
Is that how they term it?
Slightly, and sometimes youhave two and even three.
They can have one engine out ofeach city that goes up for the

(13:34):
situation and a battalion chief.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
So we have a robust mutual aid component within the
state of California.
So when things like that awildfire is a great example
because those happen every year,when that out-of-count a
wildfire is a great examplebecause those happen every year,
when that out of countywildfire happens, that county
will put in a request forresources.
They may request any kind, anytype, which when things are
really going bad.
It doesn't matter what kind ofresource and when I talk about

(13:57):
kind of resource we're talkingfire engine thing like that and
then type we have differenttypings so type one, type two,
type three, type fire engine,which is the different sizes of
our fire engines, the ones thatyou typically see driving around
the city of Burbank.
That's a type one fire engineor our heaviest, our highest
ability fire engine.

(14:17):
So when they put that requestin as any type, any kind,
they're going to get whatever'sthe closest and they're going to
report directly there.
But a lot of times, like whatyou're talking about, they'll
put in a request for two striketeams or possibly a task force
and that request will go throughthat mutual aid process.
It'll go to LA County firefirst.
La County fire then looks atthe availability within the

(14:40):
region of Los Angeles County.
And, yes, we would send out astrike team and, for example, we
might send out strike team 1201alpha, 1201 being our
designation for a Verdugo striketeam.
So we have 1201, 1202, 1203.
That alpha at the end of itmeans it's a type one strike
team.
So type 1201, charlie, would bea type three type strike team.

(15:05):
Um, typically things, typicallywe only do alphas because
that's predominantly what wehave.
So, yes, you would see a striketeam that's made up of multiple
agencies, so that 1201 alphabasically ends up being a
conglomerate of different fireresources from area C or Verdugo

(15:25):
.
So you might see, with 1201alpha, for example, a Glendale
or, excuse me, a Burbankbattalion chief, one engine from
Burbank, two engines fromGlendale and two engines from
Pasadena making up that striketeam.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
It'll be six pieces of equipment altogether, One of
them being a battalion chief,five being fire engines, and
they will go out representing usas mutual aid to that
jurisdiction and they can begone, sometimes for as long as
is there a maximum amount oftime they're allowed to be gone,
but I know sometimes they'regone for a week, in 10 or even
10 days.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
So the general rule of thumb is about 14 usually is
what they try to cut people offat um as the maximum, but that
can always be extended based onthe needs of the incident.
So there are ways that thosecan be extended.
In an emergency they could begone for just a couple hours on
something local, where they'rereleased as soon as there's no
longer a threat to property andthe locals will now continue the

(16:21):
effort on their own.
They might be there for acouple of days, or it might be a
large campaign fire where we'resending resources to Northern
California and they are therefor two or more weeks and it's
the same crew also.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
It's not.
You don't rotate it out everytwo days like you do in the
regular department.
It's.
That crew stays with thatengine the entire time, Correct.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
There are some examples of exceptions to the
rule, but for the most part, yes, if we send a crew out for one
of these strike team deployments, it will be the same crew.
When we have seen some of theseextensions on deployments, we
have made arrangements whenthey've been out for several
weeks that we will use our vanand we will take personnel up

(16:59):
the day before a shift changeand we'll swap the personnel out
at that incident with theirequipment and bring that other
crew back to get some restbecause they have been gone for
several weeks.
So there are some exceptions tothat but for the most part, yes
, that crew will be with thoseengines.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
The duration of the incident I want to touch on one
point too.
I've had a lot of complaintsbeing in the media and people
want to complain abouteverything.
Oh, firemen make so much money.
Look how much they make on thestate of California.
Look at how much money theymake.
We don't.
Burbank does not pay for a taskforce when they're gone for two

(17:37):
weeks.
That money comes from the state.
The state then pays Burbank andBurbank pays the firefighters.
They're not making that muchmoney in Burbank.
They're making it because ofhow they go on task forces or
outside things they do foragencies.
So that's where the hugesalaries come from.
It's not because they're making$400,000 a year just being a

(17:58):
fire fighter in Burbank.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Correct when they deploy on something like that,
um and they're gone, they aremaking overtime.
And then there's also backfill,because to make sure that we
have the appropriate coverage inthe city of Burbank, we want to
make sure that we still havecoverage and we backfill our
fire engines.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
Reserve rigs.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
Correct.
We'll put our reserve rig inservice.
Just because we're sendingpersonnel to help in another
jurisdiction does not mean thatBurbank is vulnerable.
So I want to touch on thatfirst to make sure that
residents understand that justbecause we've sent equipment
somewhere else doesn't meanwe're deficient here.
There might be a little periodwhen we first send that rig out
that we're back filling andcalling in off-duty personnel,

(18:38):
but we do make up that staffinglevel.
Now, as you put, when they'reout, yes, they are getting paid
overtime.
If they're going to be gone formultiple days beyond their
normal shift and, yes, when thathappens.
Basically it is all through thereimbursement process.
So if they're responding to afire in a national forest up in
Northern California, the U Sforest service is responsible

(19:00):
for that fire and they will bereimbursing the state of
California, who in turn will bereimbursing the departments that
responded to that incident.
So, yes, we do get our salaryreimbursed for an incident like
that, and and deservedly so.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Let's move on to the night of the fires.
We recently had the tragicfires.
I was actually listening to theradios.
I heard the initial dispatchfor the Eden fire, you know, and
the first Purdue dispatch andthe first size of it a hundred
by 100 fire, starting small firein the beginning but with those
winds they exploded and youcould hear how within 20 minutes

(19:39):
it was already more than theycould handle and the county.
In fact we did a video, we havea video on our YouTube channel,
the first 90 minutes of theEden response, with just all the
radio traffic.
It's horrendous and, in allhonesty, that could have
happened in the city of Burbankvery easily.

(20:01):
If those winds were coming on awestward at that velocity and
they started in the BurbankHills, you could literally take
out everything between the hillsand the five freeway without, I
mean, there's no way to stopthat.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
It really isn't yeah, wind driven fire is a unique
situation, yeah um, now verdugogot really overwhelmed with
calls.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
It was, you know, 14 jurisdictions, everything else
they're trying to, they'retrying to, you know, deal with.
So they actually went and eachcity had, each city dispatched
their own calls.
So you were involved in thatentire process and we have, like
an emergency center here inBurbank.
So talk about that night alittle bit and what went on,
because I think you guys did agreat job.

(20:44):
I was listening the whole timeand you guys were on Red 3 and
doing amazing work with all thewires going down, the trees
going down and, of course, firstaid calls.
So talk a little about thatnight and, when you decided to
go to the emergency center, howthat whole situation worked.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
Yeah, so in that situation we didn't activate our
full emergency operationscenter, but we did activate a
component of that.
So we brought in keydepartments like I talked about.
So we quickly realized we werebeing overwhelmed with calls
just within our own jurisdiction.
Even when they switched to that, our fire units were going out
and handling wires down calls,trees down calls, and that takes

(21:27):
time for those units to be tiedup.
Many of your listeners andviewers may not realize that out
of our normal staffing, we havesix fire engines.
We have six stations.
We actually up staff.
That day we staffed an extraengine and some additional
apparatus, including a firepatrol, which is a type six fire
engine for us.
So we did staff additionalequipment.
We did have additionalresources, but even that was

(21:49):
overwhelming those additionalresources and going out and
chasing every single wires downcall and every single tree down
call was tying up our resourcesfor things that might not have
really been a hazard and thatpublic works or parks and
recreation could handle.
The tree down issue and wedon't need to stay on scene for
that.
We can go investigate, makesure nobody's injured and then

(22:11):
move on to the next call.
And same thing for wires down.
We could go out and make surethat there's no actual threat to
property, there's no firedanger, nobody's injured or hurt
from that, and then we can moveon to the next call.
If we can be working with waterand power more directly, now
there are ways for us to get ahold of them.
But we were having to playtelephone tag just like anybody
else.
They were also being inundatedwith calls from the public and

(22:33):
everything else.
So what we decided to do wasstand up a component of our
emergency operations center.
We brought in representativesfrom those three key departments
to sit basically across thetable from our fire personnel.
We were all in the same room.
So that way when a call came in, we could make sure that A
those departments were aware andcould start sending resources

(22:54):
at the same time, instead ofhaving to take the time to then
delay making phone calls tothose departments and get those
resources started.
They could hear the radiodispatch simultaneously and they
could also get their resourcesstarted together.
We could have closecommunication and contact with
those departments so we couldfind out etas.
We could find out if this wassomething that we could even

(23:16):
leave unmanned, where we didn'tneed to leave a fire engine
there, they could confirm yes,wires are at that area but
they're not energized.
They're low voltage in thatparticular area and they're not
energized so they're not athreat.
So, yeah, our crew is aboutfive minutes out, you can leave,
type of thing.
So it really enhanced thatcommunication for all of that.
So it really enhanced ourcapabilities as a city to

(23:43):
perform more efficiently andmore effectively.
Like you said, with whathappened with Verdugo
communications, they wereoverwhelmed with all the calls
from all the jurisdictionsthey're serving, plus the Eaton
fire going on, plus the Eatonfire going on.
So the way it worked is theywere still dispatching out major
emergency calls on red one,because we were still monitoring
that, but routine calls werecoming out on red two and it was

(24:04):
up to each jurisdiction to hearthose calls on red two.
And then for us in Burbank wethen would put it back out to
our own equipment.
Who's monitoring red three,which is another uh channel?
Yeah, so we actually had twobattalion chiefs sitting side by
side.
One was monitoring the incomingtraffic from verdugo and the
other was on the radio to ourresources in the field.

(24:25):
This way we could go ahead andactually communicate both
directions field to the eoc, eocback to verdugo if necessary.
We eventually brought in thepolice department as well, as
things really started to get alittle more hectic in the
evening and we needed some moretraffic control issues solved
and things like that.
So we did bring in the policedepartment at one point as well

(24:48):
to spend the rest of the eveningor night into the next day in
there with us as well.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
I know you had our city manager, justin Hess, in
there with you guys too.
How long were you guys therefor what time did you finally
break it down?
So?

Speaker 2 (25:01):
we kept the full component of everybody there,
including the city manager, whowas there as our director of
emergency services.
When we have a proclaimedemergency or the EOC stand up,
he serves as our director ofemergency services, so he was
there the entire time with us.
And I also want to make surethat we also give a shout out to
our public information officer.

(25:22):
Although they weren't there, wewere in close contact because
I'm sure you saw all themessaging we were getting out.
Jonathan Jones, we now call JJyeah, so we were on the phone
with him constantly.
I think, uh, jonathan and Iwere on the phone more times in
that 24 hour period than we havebeen in the last year.
But, yeah, we uh workedovernight through the night with

(25:43):
the same people.
Uh, keep in mind, most of thepeople who were there working
overnight had been up andworking their normal shift that
day, and so, for most people, bythe time they actually got out
of there and went home to go tosleep, they were up well over 24
hours doing this.
We started to stand down ouremergency operations center
component about 730 in themorning, 8 am the next morning,

(26:07):
when the winds had died down andwe were getting caught up on
stuff.
Basically we didn't shut downfully.
We kept the Verdugo dispatchingcomponent there.
We kept a couple of ourpersonnel from the fire
department.
There are support personnel.
The three people from thedifferent departments got
relieved by a new staff duringthe day.
They came in, got a briefingand then from there.

(26:27):
Since they were going to be atwork already, we just had them
go back to their offices and wewere in contact with them at
their office.
Since it wasn't as hectic atthat point we didn't have a need
to keep them sitting directlyacross the table for us.
So we officially starteddemobilizing the eoc probably
around 8 am the next morning,but we didn't officially close

(26:47):
it until the next eveningbecause we still were managing
through that all the way throughthat day in the EOC still.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
Was that a result of?
I remember I want to say fouror five, six years ago we had
another wind event like thisthat was very serious and
Verdugo was just dispatching oneactually single engine
responses for structure fires.
Yeah, because there were somany things going on.
Is this now system now a resultof?
They thought about that andsaid, hey, you know what, we

(27:17):
need to do something differentbecause there's just too much
going on at once?

Speaker 2 (27:20):
It's not necessarily just because of the wind, so the
one that you're referencing isactually back from 2011.
It was the ones that happenedthat long ago, huh.
Yeah, back in San Gabriel.
I know it doesn't seem like that, but that was the historic I
remember that night.
Yeah, that was the historic windevent that we had was back in
2011 and that really, uh, took atoll on the san gabriel valley,
especially in the pasadena areaand stuff like that.
And, um, the dispatching, theway we do it for that

(27:43):
catastrophic dispatching model,isn't necessarily just because
the winds, it's for anythingthat we have.
If we go into an earthquakemode or anything like that, um,
we already default into goinginto our own jurisdictional
dispatching.
It's for anything that wouldoverwhelm a the resources of
Verdugo, so they can now managethe incoming calls and then take
the outgoing dispatch off oftheir plate and give it to the

(28:06):
local jurisdiction, as well asallowing the local jurisdiction
to then control their resources,because there might be
communications failures as apart of it, and so, by
controlling your own resources,we have fallback communication
and line of sight radio channelsthat we can fall back on.
That might not necessarily makeit back to Verdugo and we would
lose all that communicationaltogether.

(28:26):
So it's a plan not just for thewinds, it's a plan for any true
catastrophic situation or anyemerging situation where it
overwhelms our dispatchcapabilities.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
I want to get back to Eden fire real fast Now.
We've done that.
At first happened I reached outto you I mean maybe two, three
days afterward and I said, hey,I'd like to do a podcast and
talk about all that.
He said, hey, look, I'm reallytied up.
Right now.
I'm in Pasadena, I'm doingthings.
What were you I mean you werevery busy what were you doing
during that entire you?

(28:59):
You, I mean you were very busy.
What were you doing during thatentire you know, what were you
responsible for?
What were you trying to?

Speaker 2 (29:00):
accomplish at that time?
Because it was I'm sure it wasjust mass chaos.
Yeah, so it was a jugglingmultiple things.
Organized chaos, thoughOrganized chaos it's juggling
multiple things, um, so that's agood point.
Um, also because I talked aboutwhat I do and what I'm
responsible for and in my bioyou talked about I've responded
to other jurisdictions.
Our jurisdiction always comesfirst for me.
So right after all the chaos inour own sitting, as we were

(29:22):
starting to clean up that nextday I wanted to get all of our
paperwork in a line, startedworking on our recovery
paperwork Once I started seeingthat we were getting our stuff
caught up.
We had some discussions withPasadena and also up in the
unincorporated LA County areaand stuff, so I offered our
assistance to help in any waythat we could.

(29:43):
So for that day I kind of wentover and started assisting
Pasadena with troubleshootingsome stuff with them.
So their emergency coordinatorwas in their emergency
operations center still dealingwith a lot more than what we had
going on as the fire.
She utilized me for a littlebit to go to their shelter site.
I was kind of trying to trackdown some problems for her and
get information back to her.

(30:04):
It was kind of serving as someeyes and ears for her out in the
field to get some of thatinformation.
But at the same time, I'mjuggling what we have going on
back in the city although,although the wind had died down
considerably, we start to gointo that next phase now for us,
after the response, which isgoing to be our recovery phase.
So at the same time, I'mworking now at looking at our

(30:25):
damage assessment and ourinitial damage estimates and
what does that look like?
So I was juggling multiplethings but at the same time,
that whole point and concept ofmutual aid is one day we're
going to need their help.
So if we can offer ourassistance, it's a mutually
beneficial thing.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
We did the fires a few years ago.
Yes, Well as we, as we recordthis podcast day, it's it's
storm day 2025 in Burbank.
What are your concerns rightnow?
I mean, two weeks ago ago, itwas the fires.
Two weeks later, now it's it'sflooding and and mudslides.
What are you, what are yourconcerns right now, as this

(31:02):
storm is starting to hit us?

Speaker 2 (31:03):
Well, first and foremost, I'd like to say that I
am glad that I am not one of mycolleagues right now in one of
the other jurisdictions, uh,cause I've been there and we've
done that here in Burbank.
We have had those rains after,uh, wildland fires and it does
bring secondary incidents thatwe have to be worried about.
If you remember our 2017 latunafire um, following the 2017

(31:26):
latuna fire early 2018, we hadour own mud and debris flows
made national news.
Um, it's still.
If you watch the weatherchannel, anytime they have these
weather gone wrong type showson.
They always show the clip ofthe Prius going down Country
Club Drive since it madenational news.

(31:46):
So for us right now, fortunately, we don't have any really
recent burn scars that are ofconcern, at least for the rain
amounts that we're looking attoday.
The fires that we have had inthe past that are most recent
have been in areas that will notreally cause any harm to homes.
If there is anything, our mostrecent one is the one that was

(32:07):
up off Country Club Drive thatactually, fortunately, actually
burned right above the debrisbasin.
So any mud and debris that wemay generate from that and not
from this storm, but from aheavier storm would go directly
into the mud and debris basin.
This storm for us, althoughyou're hearing things going on
with the news, with the Eatonfire, the Palisades fire, some

(32:27):
of our other local fires LACounty Public Works, who manages
our watershed, has not issuedany type of phase mudflow alerts
for our city, and again, that'sbecause our burn scars are a
lot older.
This, for the city of Burbank,would be considered a beneficial
rain event.
We're going to probably beseeing our heaviest rain here in
the next few hours.

(32:47):
It'll be this afternoon, intothis evening, but even at that
we're not looking at much morethan a couple inches today and a
few inches total over the twoand a half days that we'll be
getting rain.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Now, what about those debris bases?
I know back in 2000, you knowsome temperatures of fires we
got them emptied immediatelyafter a storm.
Do you assess where they're atright now and if we need to get
them emptied of debris beforeanother big storm could come in
two weeks?
We have no way of knowingbefore another big storm could
come in two weeks.
We have no way of knowing.
So do you have to monitor howmuch room is left in the debris

(33:20):
basin and let the county know toclean it out or not?
Or is that something you wouldlook?

Speaker 2 (33:23):
at yes and no.
So the county public works isvery good.
They manage most of our debrisbasins.
We do have a couple of debrisbasins that are managed by our
own city public works.
County public works does sendtheir crews out periodically to
do inspections.
When I say periodically it'smultiple times a year to do
inspections just for routinemaintenance as well as capacity

(33:43):
in them.
After any significant rainevent they always come out and
check the capacity on them andthen, if it is really a
significant rain event, you'lleven see them out there during
the event checking on currentcapacity and to make sure that
water is actually flowing fromthem as it's designed to.
Now, although they do come out,I believe in trust but verify.

(34:04):
So yes, I do go to all of ourdebris basins annually.
I do check on them and thenbefore any significant rain
event.
So anytime we have significantrain forecasted, I am on a
direct conference calls with thenational weather service.
So, unlike just watching thenews or getting something off of
weathercom, we get specificweather briefings.

(34:24):
I am tied into uh webinars oruh teleconferences directly with
the national weather service.
We pull spot forecastsspecifically for Burbank.
So when you hear a forecast forthe LA region.
We'll pull a forecast thatgives us something specific for
here in the city of Burbank, sowe'll know what we're really
facing.
We'll look at the inches perhour that we're looking at and

(34:47):
then we'll even send out emailsto all the respected departments
and what we might be facing.
But if it's somethingsignificant, I always go out the
day before and check.
Even if I've checked notrecently, I always go out at
least the day before and geteyes on each of these debris
basins, just for my own peace ofmind, especially after what
happened in 2018.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
well, let's hope we get through this in good shape.
Now let's talk about the onesubject nobody ever likes to
talk about.
It's inevitable, it's going tohappen, it hasn't happened for
maybe 30 years, and that's thebig one an earthquake.
I'm sure that takes themajority of your time to always

(35:29):
make sure that you're preparingbecause it's going to happen.
You don't know how serious, youdon't know what's going to fail
, what's not going to fail.
We know we have very oldoverpasses and at one time we
had three overpasses and if theyfail, Burbank would actually be
cut into two pieces.
The five would be separating ofthe two pieces and resources

(35:53):
might be stuck on one side orthe other.
Now we have a new BurbankBridge, of course, which
hopefully will be seismic stablein that situation.
But talk to us a little aboutwhat you do for earthquake
preparation, because you knowit's going to happen and we're
due.
We're due right now for it.
So let's talk a little aboutearthquakes.
What do you have to say aboutwhat you do with that?

Speaker 2 (36:15):
Yeah, you brought up a good point.
It's Southern California.
It's not a matter of if, it's amatter of when.
We have small earthquakes allthe time.
Most people don't realize it,but if you actually go onto the
USGS website and look, there areearthquakes every single day.
Most just aren't felt 1.2, 1.5,yeah, it's just a matter of
time.
It's not a matter of if and.

(36:37):
So when we look at that, we doprepare for earthquakes.
One of the things that I liketo say is we do have within the
state a California catastrophicearthquake plan, and I'll go
into that here in a second.
But at the city level orjurisdictional level, we do keep
catastrophic earthquake in theback of our mind.
But when we do most of ourplanning doesn't matter if it's

(36:58):
for earthquake or anything.
We do what we call all hazardplanning.
So it's for any type of hazard.
But when we do that, we don'tnecessarily plan for the 1%
incident.
We plan for the 90% incident.
So we plan for the earthquakesthat we're more commonly going
to see, something like aNorthridge type earthquake, and
then we can scale up or scaledown from there.

(37:18):
But if we plan for thecatastrophic earthquake, then
we're not prepared for whensomething smaller happens, and
if we prepare for thecatastrophic earthquake, we
think that's how it's going tobe.
We don't know how it's going tobe yet.
So preparing for that ispreparing for the unknown.
So when we look at this, weprepare for the most common size
earthquake something more likea 6.4, something that we saw,

(37:41):
like the Northridge earthquake,and how that will impact us.
As you saw, even with theNorthridge earthquake, it
brought down overpasses.
It brought down an overpass onthe 10 freeway, it brought down
the overpass on the 14 to thefive interchange, so we don't
have to think catastrophic tohave something like that happen.
So when we plan for somethinglike this, yes, uh, that's one

(38:03):
of the critical things that welook at.
When you look at Burbank, it'sbisected right in the middle
with the five freeway.
There's no getting around that.
Um.
And yes, as you said, uh, wehad some aging overpasses.
Uh, luckily, with the fivewidening project, we have had
some new overpass constructionput in.
Um, they've also seismicallyretrofitted some of the other
stuff that is here, um.
But again, there's no guarantee.
Right until it actually happens, we don't know.

(38:25):
You can say something's ratedto whatever magnitude, but until
that magnitude happens, wedon't know what will actually
happen.
So we have to prepare for theunknown and in that situation we
do have what we would call areacommand that we would go into.
So we have plans that if thecity is bisected, we would go
into area command and we wouldhave what we have east of the

(38:46):
fire freeway and what we havewest of the fire freeway.
Those would become two of ourbranches, so we would have East
branch and West branch.
We would then go into that areacommand, similar to what we
talked about with Verdugo, wherean incident commander on each
side of the freeway wouldcontrol the resources fire law,
public works, whatever it may beon each side of the freeway.

(39:06):
So we do have that in place thatwe can manage resources locally
on each side and we at leasthave resources there for
immediate need.
We will, no matter what, even ifoverpasses did come down, be
able to get resources around.
We just have to take a littlebit more time to get to a
passable position to get across.
But we will keep managedresources on both sides of the

(39:28):
freeway to manage that immediateneed resource.
So if, for example, there'sonly two patrol units in the
west side of the freeway at thetime from law enforcement.
We will make arrangements tostart moving in equal numbers so
we can actually have adequateresponse on both sides.
Because it might be the pointthat they had a call going on

(39:49):
when this happened and a lot ofour resources were tied up, like
, say, at the, and so it justhappens when the earthquake took
place, a lot of our resourceswere cut off on one side of the
city.
Well, the remaining units willhandle that immediate need
threat.
We will move and positionresources back into an area to
provide that support and then wewill go into that area command

(40:11):
for both sides of the freeway.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
I think people need to rest assured that it has been
thought out and there is a planin place.
It's going to happen.
Yeah, we don't, and you don'tknow when.
It could happen in five minutes, it could happen in five years.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
So it's, you know, middle of the night middle of
the day and most of theexercises that we dove usually
around a while excuse me aroundan earthquake.
It's our typical thing.
It's the thing that we're we'remost, you know, attuned to,
because it doesn't matter whatyou're going to see something
about earthquake preparedness oryou're going to see Dr Lucy

(40:47):
Jones on the TV or something.
It's something that inCalifornia we're very attuned to
earthquake TV or something.
It's something that inCalifornia we're very attuned to
earthquake.
So when we do a lot of ourlarger disaster drills or
emergency operations centerdrills, not just in Burbank but
throughout the state, you'll seea common theme that a lot of
times it's focused aroundearthquake.
Because that's the thing thatif we do more sets and reps,

(41:07):
then we're ready to go when itactually happens.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
I remember back in I think it was 2008 or 2009, maybe
a great shakeout day.
I actually went on a ride-alongwith Engine 11.
And Mark Hatch at the time wasgoing to become a captain just
at that time.
He just retired recently after.
Yes, he was a great guy, he wasa super guy.
But when the call went out, youknow, imaginary earthquake,

(41:32):
everything else, and to watchhow they responded, watch how
they assess their district andall that.
So when an earthquake firsthits, everybody moves their rigs
out of the station is correct.
And then and then they startpatrolling their districts for
damage and be preempted beforecalls are made correct and it's
not just the fire department.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
Um, we have a whole thing with earthquake mode.
So for the fire departmentsince you brought that up, first
is fire department.
When we have that earthquake,Verdugo will send out the alert.
We go into earthquake mode, wemove to our appropriate channels
, like we talked about with thatcatastrophic dispatching.
So that way we have our directdispatching for our units.
All of our stations will movetheir equipment out of the
apparatus base because we don'tknow what the building might

(42:11):
have suffered in that initialearthquake and we don't want
equipment to be stuck in thereif there's an aftershock that
might make that worse.
So we want to get our equipmentout as quickly as possible,
have it ready in case we need togo somewhere.
And then the first thing westart doing is assessing our own
facility, making sure thatfacility is still structurally
sound.
Then we'll do basically ourhazard assessments within our

(42:32):
area.
They'll start doing windshieldsurveys.
Now this isn't just unique tothe fire department.
This will be the lawenforcement side.
So our police department willbe doing windshield surveys,
Public works will be doingwindshield surveys.
They'll all be looking atdifferent components falling in
earthquake.
So from the law enforcementstandpoint, they're looking at
law enforcement threats, trafficcontrol issues signals out
things like that.
They're also looking at lawenforcement threats, traffic
control issues signals outthings like that.

(42:52):
They're also looking at ourstreets.
Passable Public Works is kindof looking at our bridges,
underpasses, things like that.
Also our infrastructure samewith water and power and all
that stuff.
So we're going to go out and doquick initial windshield
assessments of what's going on.
We do this for every earthquakethat reaches a certain
magnitude that triggers us to gointo it.

(43:13):
Basically, if you felt it,we're probably going into
earthquake mode just to assessit.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
A lot of times I'll hear I won't feel an earthquake,
but all of a sudden I hearVerdue saying, going into
earthquake mode.
Oh, I have to check in.
Where was that?
How much you know?

Speaker 2 (43:27):
So I mean, they're on top of it as soon as it happens
and that's one thing that ourfire department might go into
earthquake mode for somethingand we might not go into full
earthquake mode for all theother city departments Because
the earthquake might have beenfelt more to our east side.
It might have been in WestCovina, which is one of our
cities, and so it might havebeen felt more there, triggering

(43:52):
us to go into Verdugo-wideearthquake mode which impacts
all of our cities.
So we might not have felt itwhere we would have been doing
damage assessment or thosewindshield surveys with public
works, water and power andeverybody else, because we
really didn't feel anything.
You might have seen your waterjiggle a little bit, but they
felt it more in the San GabrielValley.
But since Verdugo goes back towhat we talked about earlier is
all one system, the alert goesout to all of Verdugo resources,

(44:12):
so you might see our fireapparatus out doing a windshield
survey when others might not be.
So I also want to make sure thepublic understands that if you
don't see everybody out all of asudden cruising the area, it
might be that we didn't feel itnecessarily in Burbank.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
Explain to me what a windshield survey is.
It's not.
You're not looking at carwindshields.
No, Explain what a windshieldsurvey, what that, what that
entails.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
Yeah.
So a windshield survey gets itsname because we're in the
vehicles whether it be a policecar, a dump truck, a fire engine
, whatever you might be in andyou're looking at everything
through the windshield.
Basically, at that point we'renot getting out of our vehicles
assessing stuff.
We're driving by, we're gettinga quick visual down and dirty
of how big is big, how bad isbad.

(44:54):
Yes, there might be a buildingthat looks collapsed.
If we stop and take our time toreally go and assess that
building, we might find out thatit's just a facade that's
really damaged and there's notreally a lot of other stuff.
But we've taken that unit out ofservice that could have been
looking at two or three moreblocks in that same amount of
time.
So in this initial phase we'regoing through and doing this

(45:14):
rapid assessment of what's goingon and then we know what parts
of the city are hit hardest andwe know where we're going to.
Probably focus in our attentionDoesn't mean that we're not
going to do life saving measuresIf there's somebody who's
injured.
Of course life safety alwayscomes first.
But we want to try to assess asmuch of the city as quickly as
possible, so we're doing that inthe comfort of the vehicle

(45:39):
while we're driving aroundbehind the windshield.
And then we're going to get outboots on the ground after that
and then start doing moredetailed assessments after we
get that first down and dirtysnapshot of what's going on.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
Absolutely, I think.
I think we're in good hands, Ithink you guys have it figured
out in advance and people willknow that you're just not
playing it by cuff.
It's really, there's really aplan in place and it's thought
out.
Yes, and I'm sure you put a lotof time into that entire plan
and organization and youcontinue to probably look at it,
you know, probably on a monthlybasis, don't you?

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Yeah, it's chaotic when it it happens, but, like
you said earlier, it'sorchestrated chaos.
Um, yeah, it's gonna look like,you know, a duck on water.
The legs underneath arepaddling as fast as they can,
but they're just kind of glidingacross the top.
I wish it just always lookedthat graceful.
It doesn't.
A lot of times it looks likewe're running around, but there
is a method to what we're doing,absolutely.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
Well, let's get off earthquakes.
That scares enough people as itis.
What would you like to seeresidents do to be preemptive
for disaster?
What you know what?
What?
What should we advise people?
We always talk about earthquakekits and this and that and
everything else, but what, whatdo you advise?
And there's anything that youor the city does to help people?

(46:54):
Or talk about preparedness alittle bit for average residents
.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Yeah.
So there are several thingsright off the top that residents
can do and can control theirown destiny with a lot of this.
First thing is sign up forAlert Burbank.
Alert Burbank is our alert andwarning system that we have in
the city of Burbank.
Alert Burbank is our alert andwarning system that we have in
the city of Burbank.
It's similar to, but not thesame as, the wireless emergency
alerts that you get for an Amberalert.
It will be received on yourphone, unlike a, a wheeler,

(47:20):
which just hits a cell tower,hangs off of everybody who's
within the circumference of thatpolygon of that cell tower.
Our alert Burbank is moretargeted.
So, um, you can sign up withyour home phone.
If it's still a landline phoneor voiceover internet phone, you
can put your cell phone inthere, your email address.
We actually recommend you putas many modes of communication

(47:42):
as possible, because what willend up happening is we will send
out a targeted message and evenif cell phones are down for
some reason or you're in an areawith low or poor cell phone
coverage, it will go to yourlandline, it will go to your
email.
You will still get that message.
Unlike WIA.
Wia is getting a lot ofcriticism right now and again.

(48:03):
Wia is just a tool in the toolchest.
We will use WIA as well, thewireless emergency alert, but we
will also use our alert burbank.
And if you're just waiting fora we alert, um, it's like I've
tried to explain to people.
We might not send the we alertfirst.
We might send an alert burbankmessage first.
For example, um, the um, uhcountry club fire that we had.

(48:25):
We did send out a targeted uhevacuation warning to people in
the country club area becauseit's a one way in, one way out.
Although there wasn't a truly athreat, we wanted to make sure
they were aware.
We put a warning in place andwe let them know because it is a
one way in, one way out.
Canyon.
If we would have used we arefor something like that, it

(48:48):
would have hit everybody withinthe cell phone towers of that
area and since we put cell phonetowers on higher points, the
antennas go to further distances, so you put it in the foothills
.
I could have sent out a we amessage and it could have been
targeting people on the otherside of the five freeway and on
a we a message.
We're limited to only 360characters.
It doesn't give me a lot ofoptions to say this is really
targeted for the country clubdrive area.
It's more precautionary, wherewe can put as many characters as

(49:12):
we want in our message and Ican target the specific block
that I wanted to go to.
So, first and foremost, signingup for alert Burbank.
You can go to a readyBurbankorg or the Burbank city
website.
There are links on both to takeyou directly there to sign up.
Second thing is have a plan.
So many times I've responded toincidents, like I said, up and

(49:34):
down the state of californiainto other states.
Most people are unprepared.
Uh, we just got done talkingabout earthquake.
It's not a matter of if.
It's a matter of when.
Most people do not have thenecessity and the supplies that
they need within their own hometo take care of themselves
following an earthquake.
Um, if you look at differentwebsites, they're going to give

(49:55):
you different things.
I'm that they need within theirown home to take care of
themselves following anearthquake.
If you look at differentwebsites, they're going to give
you different things.
I'm not going to say one isright over another.
Have food and water.
You'll see some sites say havethree days worth of food and
water.
Some will say five, ours saysseven.
I'm a big proponent of seven.
That's a week.
If you look at previousincidents that are of large
significance, like hurricanekatrina, things like that, it

(50:15):
takes a couple days just to geteverything mobilized to bring in
fema resources to have pointsof distribution set up.
The likelihood of us havinganything set up in under five
days to start providing thathumanitarian care of water and
food to people is probably slimin a true catastrophic situation
like an earthquake where supplychains are disrupted.
So I say have seven days, andagain it's not going out and you

(50:39):
don't have to go and spend alot of money on these things
that you see on TV with all ofthese MREs, meals ready to eat
or these pre done kits and stufflike that.
Have a plan and have a kit.
It's simple.
You can just do something assimple as in your pantry buy
canned goods that you're nottypically going to eat.
I tell people you know like, ifyou're not going to eat chef

(51:03):
boy RD, buy some Kansas chef boyRD and put it in your pantry,
not to knock on chef boy RD,because I don't want to get in
trouble with somebody who says Ilove that stuff.
We love the chef, but if that'snot something that you
typically eat, you will in anemergency and it will last for a
while.
And I say get something thatyou're not typically going to
eat, because if you getsomething that you eat and enjoy

(51:24):
, what will end up happening isone day you'll come home from
work, you'll be tired and notwant to cook and not want to
order takeout.
There's the chef, yes, so ifit's something that you're not
as inclined to eat, I recommendyou do that, because it'll
always be there and canned goodswill last for several years on
the shelf.
But have a plan, have food andwater, have a kit, because we're

(51:46):
not going to be there in everysituation.
As we talked about earlier,I've got six fire stations on
any given day.
There are six fire engines, twoladder trucks, three ambulances
, with an additional ambulanceduring peak staffing.
That's not a lot of resources.
We have to triage those 911calls coming in.
We're not going to be able tobe there for everybody.
So have a plan, have a kit and,last but certainly not least,

(52:10):
after what we're seeing withthese fires, and last but
certainly not least, after whatwe're seeing with these fires,
if you're a homeowner, reassessyour insurance every year.
Go around your home, look atthings that you've bought we
don't even think about.
If you bought new electronics,is that on your plan?
Have you looked at what yourinsurance coverage covers?
Have you looked at inflationand what rebuilding costs are?
Always revisit your insuranceevery year, if not every other

(52:34):
year, and make sure that you'readequately insured.
We're seeing too many people,not just in these fires, but
it's a common trend of peoplebeing underinsured and I'm not
talking about people that are onthe fair plan and, as some
people call it, the unfair planbut if you've got homeowners
insurance, it doesn't matter ifit's a flood, an earthquake, a
fire.
We are constantly seeing thatpeople are underinsured for what

(52:56):
they need to rebuild becausethey got their insurance when
they bought their home.
It's gone up quite a bit in the10 years since they bought it
and they've never looked attheir insurance since then.
They haven't shopped around,they haven't gotten new quotes,
they haven't upped theirinsurance coverage and when
something happens, they'reinadequately insured for the
repairs that need to take place.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
I want to go back to one thing you were talking about
with preparedness.
I've also been told that,especially during an earthquake,
you should have a meeting place.
So if people are separatedduring a disaster and your house
is, you know, burned down orflattened, you have a place

(53:38):
where all the family membersknow where to go to find each
other.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Yeah, If there's a communication failure for some
reason, you want to be able tohave some type of meeting place.
Um, one of the things that'srecommended is like a church or
a park or community centerthat's nearby that.
Um, yeah, if something happensand it's not just for an
earthquake.
It could be for kids cominghome from school and there's an
evacuation from a wildland fireUm, you can't get home, for

(54:05):
whatever reason, you should goto this alternate location,
whether it be a relative's home.
If there's no other relatives inthe city, then go to a church,
go to a rec center, go to acommunity center, go to a
designated park that everybodyin the family has agreed upon
and knows that's where youshould go.
Check, In addition to that,with what you brought up, have
an out of state contact.

(54:25):
If you've got friends andrelatives that live out of state
.
If we have something like anearthquake, we're going to tie
up our phone lines here more.
It's easier to play relay thatI can call um an out-of-state
relative and then my parents cancall that same relative to
check in on me.
That person becomes a messageboard or a bulletin board for
all of our messages there you go.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
Good idea, good idea.
Well, we're about ready to wrapup here, but I want to know
what is now your continuingfocus, moving on.
What is it?
You know, I know you've got allthe demons in the world
hovering over in disasters, butwhat's your focus now, moving on
daily, monthly, yearly, rightnow, so our focus right now,

(55:06):
especially from my division inemergency management, is really
on that community engagement.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
We're really trying to get the community more
involved in doing homepreparedness.
Again, we're seeing that as acommon trend.
So we're spending more time inthe community.
We're spending more time atdifferent civic events
neighborhood watch meetings,different civic group meetings
where I am presenting and tryingto encourage people to have
that plan and make a differencefor themselves.

(55:32):
Again, that's the biggest thingthat you can do for yourself
have a plan, have a kit, beprepared.
It's not just for earthquakes,it's for anything.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
I don't want to inundate you because I know
you're busy enough, but ifsomebody wants to talk to you or
talk to somebody aboutpreparedness, things like that,
who would you advise that theycall?
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
So they can contact our front desk.
Um, so they can call our mainphone number, um, area code
eight, one, eight, two, three,eight, fire.
It's easy number to remember,um, and they'll put them in
contact with me again.
Um, it's one of those thingswhere I'm a one person division,
so it is about timing, so Imight not be able to get back to

(56:14):
somebody immediately.
They can also email.
Our contact information is onthe city's website.
It's one of those things whereI will get back to them.
But we also have readyburbankorg, which is basically a
preparedness site for the cityof Burbank that we've put
together that is tailored moretowards the community than
anything else.
I would recommend that be theirfirst starting point.

(56:34):
But I am more than happy,especially if you've got a group
to come out.
We really don't do individualemergency preparedness because
over 100,000 people, it wouldtake us forever.
But if you have a group, likeif you're part of a neighborhood
watch group and they meet on aWednesday evening and you would
like me to come out, somebodyfrom that group could reach out
to me.
We'll arrange.
It might take a few weeks toactually get the calendars

(56:56):
aligned, but I will go out tothat group and present.
If you have a church group, Iwill go out and present.
If it's a homeownersassociation at a townhome or a
condo in the city of Burbank andit's for the entire townhome or
condo, we will go out andpresent.
Again, we will do grouppresentations, not individual
presentations.
Good to know.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
So, as we wind up here, is there anything else
that you'd like to say or tellthe people before we?

Speaker 2 (57:24):
end this thing.
I just would like to thank youfor having me on.
It's always a pleasure.
We talk quite a bit on otherthings throughout.
You know, when you're askingabout things that are going on,
it's always a pleasure.
We talk quite a bit on otherthings throughout.
You know, when you're askingabout things that are going on.

Speaker 1 (57:34):
I always appreciate you getting right back to me,
every time too.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
This is great because , again, I don't think a lot of
people know what emergencymanagement is or the things that
we really are doing behind thescenes in the city of Burbank.
Residents in the city ofBurbank are very fortunate.
Not every city in the County ofLos Angeles or anywhere in the
state not everybody has adedicated emergency management
position.
More and more cities are nowstarting to get these dedicated

(57:59):
positions, but still it's fewand far between.
In the 88 cities within theCounty of Los Angeles, there's
probably less than a quarter ofthose cities have a dedicated
position for emergencymanagement.
It's usually somebody that, inaddition to your other duties,
this is something you need tothink about where we've taken
the time and invested to havethis position, to look out and

(58:21):
think about these problems.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
Well, I think we're very lucky here in Burbank not
only to have an emergencydirector, but to have you with
your experience, because I'msure you do a lot for other
cities too, to help reach out tothem and say the director, but
have you with your experience,because I'm sure you do a lot
for other cities too, to reachout to them and say, hey, you
need this or that.
So we're very lucky to have youand I hope I know you're going
to be busy, but let's hope younever get that busy, because

(58:44):
that busy means something's gone.
Haywire.
Eric Baumgartner, thank you somuch for coming to the studio.
Thank you so much for coming tothe studio.
Thank you so much for thisgreat conversation.
I hope it helps people.
It'll be on our channels foreverand they can tune to it anytime
and hopefully they can getsomething out of this.
So, once again, thank you forcoming in.
Appreciate it.
Thank you, and everybody elseout there, thank you for

(59:07):
watching.
Hit the old like button andsubscribe and if you're in the
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