⚠️ EMERGENCY ALERT UPDATE (May 2026): Since the original release of this episode, Nevada County and the Town of Truckee have moved away from Code Red Alerts. Please do not use the link mentioned in the audio. Instead, register for emergency notifications at TahoeAlerts.com or Nevada County Alerts to ensure you receive life-saving information.

How ready are you for a wildfire? This week, Battalion Chief Thomas Smith (Cal Fire) joins us to explain why preparation is the best tool we have for survival.

Inside this episode:

• The 3 Essentials: Evacuation plans, communication strategies, and go-bags.
• Expert Advice: Insights from the field on how to navigate an evacuation.
• Family First: Why every member of your household needs to know their role.
• Real-World Tips: Avoiding the common mistakes that lead to chaos during a fire.

Links referenced in this episode:

• readyforwildfire.org
• TahoeAlerts.com
• Nevada County Alerts

Welcome to 101.5 Truckee Tower radio community conversations on Wildfire, where we help you stay safe, informed and ready. I'm your host, JD Haas, and this episode is titled When Every Minute Counts. Creating an Evacuation Plan and go Bag.

And we're joined by an expert who knows exactly what it takes to stay safe when Wildfire strikes. That's Battalion Chief Thomas Smith with Cal Fire. Welcome to the 101.5 Studios.

Chief Good afternoon, J.D. How are you?

I'm wonderful Today. So today we're going to walk through three critical pieces of Wildfire preparedness.

Creating a personalized evacuation plan, building a family communication strategy, and packing your emergency go bag. So let's dive in because when Wildfire hits, every minute counts. So why is having a plan so essential before a fire even starts?

Let me start with a well known quote from Benjamin Franklin. By failing to plan, you're planning to fail. JD so that that planning process is going to set us up for success.

And having that plan will take that stressful environment that we're in when we're in an evacuation order or warning and bring it down into just an implementation. We're implementing that plan.

What patterns or mistakes do you commonly see during evacuations?

What we see is the fire starts and it moves faster than we realize. And the time that it takes for you to figure out that smoke is in the air that you need to evacuate, people tend to wait too long.

They wait to see, but then the roads get busy, the equipment's coming in, people are evacuating out, and the time it takes just condenses into such a small time frame. People's stress goes up, the fire intensity increases.

And that planning process to implement your plan, to leave early when there's an order or when there's a warning is up to them, but they need to follow their plan and follow the directions from law enforcement.

Can you briefly explain the ready set go framework?

I sure can. Ready means the hardening of your home, the defensible space you provide around your structures.

And what that is is the first five feet being the zone zero, being free of any flammable items, the zero to 30 being lean and green and all the way out to 100ft. Also with that, the home hardening side of it is meeting the building standards for living in the wildland urban interface environment.

Having your siding resistant to embers, having your vents small enough mesh that embers can't get inside.

When it is time to replace your roofing, replacing it with a fire resistive roofing and following those directions, all, all that information available to you on readyforwildfire.org and there's full checklists that you can put in your demographics, your type of housing and structure you have. And it'll guide you with the best practices for implementing priority projects. Smaller, easier do it yourself projects and even price points.

Expensive home hardening versus cost free raking of leaves, things like that.

Cost free raking of leaves. And one that I personally know is moving stacks of firewood.

Stacks of firewood and pine needles. Pine needles are a huge issue up here as well. And how do we mitigate and get rid of them?

Let's help the listeners now start their evacuation plans. What is the first step?

The first step has got to be just having that conversation as a family, building that communication plan, socializing the idea that we live in a fire prone area, that we need to be ready to live with fire and with that comes an evacuation or warning or having a fire nearby and knowing what that plan is.

So whether that socialization is with older family members and that discussion is going to be different than having a discussion with your children that may be youth at school that day when an evacuation happens, and knowing that the initial plan of the family together evacuating from their home may not be that exact plan the day of, and knowing that if it's been socialized, if it's been understood, if it's been communicated to the family, that we have this reality, we have communication with family members outside the region that we can all communicate to and have that as a base plan.

If communication goes down here, cell phone towers, power outages, if we get separated, knowing what that communication plan is with people outside the area.

Okay, we'll dive deeper into that here shortly. But what about pets or people with special needs? That's a challenge.

That's the conversation for today, right? We need to plan and we need to plan for that.

Now you need to have your carriers, your leashes, food for those pets for your family members that are elderly or maybe have those mobility issues. Make sure you have those medications ready for them for your family members that have those mobility issues that may be elderly, for those kids.

You need to think about that with transportation as well, making sure you have the ability to move those pets. And is that in your decision making process? Do you have time to evacuate your pets as well as your person and your family?

Not just, not just dogs and cats too, I mean large animals as well. From what I understand, large animals get moved on a warning, absolutely.

Then maybe even before a Warning.

If you have a lot of animals, if you have a major mobility issue or if you have a lot of stuff that you identify as important, your evacuation process may start with the notification of a fire, not a warning or an order.

If that's your plan and you identified that you need more time than what an order or a warning may give you, then we encourage courage you to make sure that you leave when you think you need to leave.

You kind of took me on a little place back in my mind to a child where we did fire drills at school.

It almost is like folks with large animals or folks who have mobility issues, they should run a fire drill to figure out how much time this is really going to take and then probably double it because of the stress.

Absolutely. When you're under a stressful environment, your mind and your body is not thinking as quickly as a stress free environment.

And that's why we're encouraging you guys today on this episode to plan ahead so that the plan doesn't need to be developed in that stressful environment that you just need to implement it.

And with those large animals or even the pets, there's a lot of resources out there from the Ag Pass to knowing where to be able to take your animals to a shelter if you, if everyone's getting displaced and those resources are all there through our community, through the town and through the agencies that will be responding to a large scale fire.

Yeah, we have horses ourself and so we already have a plan in there. My wife has horses and daughter, we have cats too.

So one thing with cats that we've learned, letting the cat out of the bag real easy, putting the cat in the box, not a simple thing as a family.

What we learned part of it, we actually have these go boxes for the cats and we stand them straight up with the hole on the top so we can just walk by with the cat and when it doesn't know it's coming, just drop it in there and shut the door. I mean it sounds funny and all, but we've tried so many ways to get the animals in these. The dogs will automatically load up in the vehicle.

They're going anywhere we go. And then these horses, sometimes they don't want to load.

And then I didn't think about folks who have a large amount of animals, what it takes to move many of them. So we'll get some more tips on that a little bit later. But great information. Let's go back. You were talking about communications.

Phones go down, power goes out. How do families stay in Touch.

Absolutely.

So that family communication plan when we were talking about how do you stay in touch and, and personally with our kids, they know, they know what our parents phone numbers are. They know what my phone number is. They know their mother's phone number.

And it seems basic and I would venture to say a lot of people already do that with their children. That's a huge step forward. Also communicating. Who is that person outside the area that is going to be the communication link if we are evacuated.

Someone that's not going to be affected by the fire that does have good communications and connectivity where a call can be placed to them and they can pass it on or receive information from all directions.

Yeah. And I've also learned too that when calls start failing because the system could get overloaded, you might be in a different situation.

Cell towers aren't talking. Text messaging works really well because it holds for a minute, but the moment it gets a chance, it goes through. And social media, is this correct?

It absolutely is. Text message. Text messaging is a quick push of data and it just needs a little bit of signal for a little bit of time.

The other opportunity is there tends to be good connectivity and communications at evacuation shelters as well.

So if you're following the directions, evacuating the area, arriving at a shelter or a friend or family's out of the area at that point, using that communication link to make comms with your family and. And identify the next step is important.

Yeah. And I just want to enforce that there is that designated rendezvous point.

It's imperative we found as our family that that point needed to be known where we were all going. If everything went catastrophic. It. Elaborate on that because it may not be the one right here in town and it may not just be a couple.

Give them a couple of ideas that you might know about that.

Absolutely. And I'll touch it on. I'll touch on it on two sides.

With the evacuation itself, you need to have a primary plan, a primary evacuation route, but also an alternate because we might be sending you in a different direction because of where the fire is or to the direction it's coming from. From that in itself can make a rendezvous site or a meeting place different than your original plan.

So if we scale it very small to a house fire, you guys all plan to meet in the front yard or at the mailbox or at the neighbor's house. Very nuclear evacuation plan.

Okay.

On a large scale fire, when you get the notification for an evacuation order, you're going to follow those directions and evacuate to the direction and the location that they're pushing from there, Having that communication link with family members outside the area or having that ability to communicate with your family that has evacuated can now be reconciled and find that place, whether it is a family member outside the area that you'll reconcile and reunify with your family or determine that new place. Because everything is just a plan. And plans sometimes change because of evacuation routes, because of the fire.

So knowing that we have a plan in place, following it and sometimes adjusting it.

Okay, I see in my notes here that the emergency number list on papers and phones. I get it, I understand it. I. I have a child. The phone's always dead because she's on the social media. How do you get them to carry the paper?

I mean, when we're talking about this, this seems to be a large task for me as a parent.

I think it is. And there's technology that can help, whether it's the cloud that will house it.

So if you drop your phone and break it, or if it's out of battery when the evacuation occurs.

But having that phone list in your go bag, having that part of your checklist of your go bag, so when you have it, you grab it and go, it is with you, it's on your person, and you have that physical list with you available.

We're going to talk about the go bag. I don't have that in my go bag, Chief. I don't.

So before we get there, talk to the listeners about Nevada county, code red, Cal fire alerts and the evacuation zone maps.

You guys might hear it in all different ways. Know your zone, Tahoe alert, code red.

Those are all avenues to get informed from law enforcement and emergency management on evacuation warnings and orders. What that is is just a wireless emergency advisory through text. It may be back to a landline. It may be through social media push as well.

All of that is important to not only register yourself and your home address, but also to register your work and where your children go to school. So now you have three inputs.

If you're getting evacuated from your workplace, if your children are getting evacuated from their school, because that school might be in a different zone than your home residence, and then also your residence. And it works full circle.

If you're at work and you get notified that your home is being evacuated and it's in a zone, you know that that area is and that your children might be at home or your spouse might be at home or your pets might be at home. And. And you need to start implementing your evacuation plan and vice versa.

You brought up something very important. You said the word school. What if the kids are at school or if they're at home while we're at work when this evacuation order comes in? Now what?

Mama Bear's coming out. I can tell you right now. I've seen it, I've heard it. What's that plan?

Having an evacuation order with a school involved is a big undertaking and that would be communicated and agreed upon by all of the unified command at that fire, law enforcement, emergency management and fire. Sometimes a zone may be evacuated, but something like a school or hospital would be in a shelter in place because it is a hardened known facility.

We're moving that many people might be more dangerous or more involved than keeping them there with accountability and in a safe area. With that said, if the school is evacuated, those emergency action plans and processes are in place.

And as soon as it is, there's also a unification plan being implemented to make sure all those students are reunified with their families after that evacuation happens.

Let's get to it. The piece of paper I didn't have in my go bag. Let's talk go bags right now. What goes into an emergency bag?

The necessities? Absolutely right off the bat. Medications, snacks, water, anything that you are going to need to get you through that first 72 hours.

Chargers are a commonly forgotten item. You have all the electronic devices like we said you carry your phone lists on or prescription numbers or contacts.

You want to be able to keep those devices charged. Important papers identifying those before the incident happens. That's part of your evacuation plan.

What are the important papers, photos that you're going to bring? Cash is great.

Plastic, we kind of go off of the seven P's and, and plastic photos or pictures, important papers, personal items, anything like we talked about earlier, a couple items of comfort if you have children. Something that's going to bring some calm to the stressors that are involved with an evacuation.

And as always, don't forget those food and supplies, not only for you, but if you have pets as well and they're part of that evacuation, making sure they have their food and supplies.

Okay, now where should people store these go bags?

That's a great question.

Full of cash. See, so that's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking where am I supposed to store? Full of cash.

Exactly. And not all of the cash you own, but cash for 72 hours or maybe a bit more. And at the house we tend to point them in a right direction.

That in the vehicle is great. If it's at the house and easy to retrieve and bring with you. It can be that go bag that's right there. Ready.

Some of the discussion that we had earlier was what about when you go to work or the children are at school and that is something that you communicate with your family. Are we doing a go bag for school? In a way, they almost are.

They're going to school with lunch, they're going to school with snacks, they're going to school with their information, a school tablet, things like that that they already have with proper attire for the day. In a way, going to school, they have a go bag ready. But having those additional items.

And I don't think we live in a region where we're not prepared already. It's maybe a bit different going season to season, but most of us have a ready bag or a go bag for winter conditions.

And we just need to socialize and realize that we probably need to be prepared for our summertime conditions and that's fire season.

Okay, so a small go bag for each child as well. They're obviously not going to take that with them to school. They're going to have some necessities with them to get throughout the day.

But an individual bag for the children as well.

Absolutely.

Okay. Nevada County Ready, Set, Go Handbook. Where do you get it?

The Ready Set Go program is pushed from the state level all the way down through the counties and the fire safe councils and the district.

The easiest way is readyforwildfire.org and that will walk you through each process of the Ready, the set and the go with checklists for each section. And within that, it'll give you, based off of your demographics, more checklists.

If you have special needs, if you have mobility issues, if you have large animals, if you're a renter, it has different checklists. So that Ready Set go program on readyforwildfire.org is a huge asset.

And the fire planner within it can be catered to you specifically and you can continue to check boxes off and move through it.

Code red.

Code red. Sign up for it. Don't just sign up for your residence.

Sign up for everywhere you work or your spouse might work or your children might be going to school. If it's not code red. If, if you're in the area or you have vacation friends vacationing, have them go to Tahoe Alerts.

It'll be for every county, every district, every process for alerting people for where they are and they can sign up that way. So alert TAHOE. Code Red. ReadyForWildfire.org Familiarize yourself, sign up for them, get notifications, be ready.

Plan now so you can implement land later.

Oh, boy. There's so much to do. You just keep stacking it on, but it's. It's all so important.

Okay, Chief Smith, if our listeners only do one thing after hearing this episode, what should it be?

Being ready for Wildfire starts with each and every one of us and protecting your home, having a plan, leaving early, it all saves lives.

But if each one of you listeners today takes the time to share this information and pass it on to one family member, one neighbor, one friend, we can reach out and touch everyone in this region with this information, with this preparation, with this planning, and truly make our community more resilient and ready for Wildfire.

Cal Fire Battalion Chief Thomas Smith, thank you so much for all your time and your expertise in creating an evacuation plan and talking about Kobags.

JD thank you for having me.

We are here to serve you guys, every constituent, every resident, every visitor of the area, and not only in an emergency response fashion, but we're here to help you guys with information and education.

Okay? Thank you. I'm JD Haas, your one of 1.5 community conversations on Wildfire host. Stay safe, stay informed, and stay ready.