Photos and Story by Catherine Stachowiak
A wildfire awareness event, with organizations educating the community to be prepared for and prevent wildfires was the focus last Saturday, May 4 at Circle Park in Kernville. The event was held in honor of National Wildfire Preparedness Day.
The Kern Fire Safe Council’s Coordinator Wendy Ward planned the event, along with Outreach Coordinator Cuc Tat, and with support from the Kern County Fire Department, the US Forest Service, and the Kernville Chamber of Commerce.
Ward said, “The Kern Fire Safe Council invited over 20 partners or agencies to present information, in an interactive and entertaining way, with community members on being fire resilient; so whether it’s preparing for a wild fire or what to do during a wildfire or what happens after a wildfire.”
The Kern Fire Safe Council had information on home hardening a defensible space and building a fire wise community.
Others educating visitors at the event were Kern County Fire Department, US Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management. The fire department educated the public about their evacuation system. Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) provided information on ground clearance, fire extinguishers and disaster prep. Search and Rescue was also a vendor at the event.
Fred Clark’s Farmer’s Insurance Agency was on hand at the event, as was the California Department of Insurance, to update the public on how residents can attain good fire insurance in high fire risk areas.
Face painting and coloring tables were available enabling children to color pictures as birthday cards to Smokey the Bear who just turned 80. Games were also provided for children to play during the event.
Central California Large Animal Disaster told the public about animals during evacuations, as did Kern County Animal Control.
Independent Living Center provided information on emergency generators to assist senior citizens.
