The third Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council’s Fire Safety Muster is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 26, at the Idyllwild Community Center site.
It promises much useful and needed information that “… will serve as reminder for Hill residents to begin preparing for another fire season,” said Edwin Scott, MCFSC executive director. “It’s that time of year again.”
One of the featured attractions is the U.S. Forest Service’s popular K-9 demonstration.
“We wanted them back again because they were so popular last year,” Scott said.
Many other agencies will demonstrate activities and safety procedures during the day, such as the Idyllwild Fire Department, which will demonstrate an extrication of a person from an automobile. Several other fire agencies, including Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department and the Forest Service, will demonstrate hose lays.
MCFSC’s Woodies unit will be present and demonstrating how to split wood safely. Some of the local wood contractors will be demonstrating tree cutting.
A Riverside County representative will be available to register telephone numbers, including cell phones, to receive messages from its “Emergency Warning System.” If an evacuation were issued during a fire, as was done last summer during the Mountain and Silver fires, this system will leave a message on every phone number registered within the affected area.
This muster will be the largest yet. “A lot of the agencies are really stepping up to the plate with time or personnel for this event,” Scott said proudly.
Besides the fire agencies already mentioned, other participants include the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Riverside County Office of Emergency Services, the Mt. San Jacinto State Park, Pine Cove Water District and local emergency groups, such as Mountain Disaster Preparedness, Mountain Community Patrol and Mile High Radio Club.
For the past two musters, the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit has agreed to demonstrate rescues; but then the day of the muster it has been called to actual rescue incidents. Scott hopes RMRU will be able to participate this year.
The first demonstration, the K-9 activities, are at 11 a.m. IFPD”s auto extraction is the final demonstration before the muster finishes at 3 p.m. Food and beverages will be available on site throughout the event.