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City officials are expected to take a look at how prepared Seal Beach is to deal with a firestorm.
During the council comment part of the Jan. 13 City Council meeting, District Five councilman Nathan Steele said it was on the council to begin putting together a plan to make Seal Beach “more fire-resilient.”
City Attorney Nick Ghirelli said that since this was not an agenda item, the council was giving direction to staff to come back to the council. He said the council could vote on the report that staff brings back to the council.
Steele said he had been watching the news about the fire in Pacific Palisades. He saw TV interviews with people who lost their homes, saying, “I never thought it would happen to me.”
Steele said the city closed Gum Grove Park last week. (In an email, District Two Councilman Ben Wong said the Orange County Fire Authority confirmed the closure.) “That could be a spark point for something to come into our neighborhood in a high wind situation,” Steele said.
“I looked at my neighborhood in Leisure World. If we had a sudden, wind-driven firestorm come into our neighborhood, the death toll would be mind-boggling,” he said.
Steele said there is no evacuation plan capable of moving that many people in three days.
He asked if the city should clear Gum Grove Park. (This was the subject of a letter to the council from resident Cathy Goldberg. She CC’d the Sun in her email. See Letters to the Editor, page 6.) He proposed bringing professionals together to assess Seal Beach.
Steele said he would like to incorporate fire mitigation into the water system.
District Four Councilwoman Patty Senecal encouraged the public to follow the city’s social media. She said when she (along with many other Seal Beach residents) got an evacuation alert last week from Los Angeles, she checked social media and learned that the message was sent in error.
Seal Beach has two fire stations. The Orange County Fire Authority has the contract to provide fire and paramedic services to the city.
