Sonoma County emergency officials will hold two live streamed Zoom community briefings on preparations for fire season this week. The briefings will be streamed live on Sonoma County’s Facebook page on June 9 in English, with live Spanish interpretation on YouTube, and on June 10 in Spanish, with live interpretation in English on YouTube. Both events will be at 5:00 p.m.

Topics to be covered include the fire outlook for this year, the importance of signing up for emergency alerts, emergency information channels, evacuation zones, personal emergency preparation and vegetation management. Officials will be available to answer questions from the public as well.

The region is in the middle of a historic drought, and emergency officials from across the county and the state are preparing for a challenging fire season. The danger this year is exacerbated by two successive years of low rainfall, leaving forests and brush tinder dry. Fuel conditions are what they normally would be in early July, according to Cal Fire.

“Now is the time for you to prepare,” said Lynda Hopkins, Chair of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. “From power shutoffs to rolling blackouts to heatwaves to wildfires, it could be a rough summer and fall for many of us in Sonoma County. The best thing that we can do is to get ready for whatever the season throws at us.”

June 9 panelists: Lynda Hopkins, Chair of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors; Chris Godley, Director of Sonoma County Department of Emergency Management; Ben Nicholls, Cal Fire Division Chief; Nancy Brown, Community Preparedness Program Manager for Sonoma County Department of Emergency Management; Misti Wood, Community Engagement Liaison for the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office; Cyndi Foreman, Fire Marshal, Sonoma County Fire District; Paul Gullixson, Sonoma County Communications Manager.

June 10 panelists: Lynda Hopkins, Chair of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors; Supervisor James Gore; Jorge Rodriguez, Deputy Emergency Services Coordinator for the Sonoma County Department of Emergency Management; Alma Bowen, Executive Director of Nuestra Comunidad; Juan Valencia, Public Information Officer for the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office; Ruben Mandujano, Fire Inspector and Engineer for the Healdsburg Fire Department; Sylvia Lemus, Sonoma County Communications Specialist

What: Community briefing on fire season preparations

Where: Facebook/CountyofSonoma

When: June 9 (English), June 10 (Spanish) at 5:00 p.m.