WASHINGTON — Today, July 16, 2024, the U.S Fire Administrator Dr. Lori Moore Merrell, will join Orange County Fire Chief Brian Fennessy and other area fire chiefs responding to the Vista Fire in California. The Fire Administrator will survey the fire, meet with Orange County Fire Authority Air Operations crews and visit the incident management team and firefighters. Later in the day, the Fire Administrator will arrive at the Van Nuys Tanker Base to visit with Helitanker crews and receive a brief on night suppression operations.
Tomorrow, July 17, 2024, the U.S. Fire Administrator will meet with firefighters and the incident management team assigned to the Lake Fire. The Fire Administrator will also meet with Air Operations crews and join a flight mission to survey the damage and current activity at the Lake Fire.
The U.S. Fire Administration will also release a new tool to help communities and firefighters be better informed about wildfire urban interface vulnerabilities — WUI Awareness | FEMA Geospatial Resource Center (arcgis.com). This interactive geospatial tool will help to inform residents that live in fire prone land and provide the understanding of how embers from fires in the interface can move to ignite their homes.
For additional resources on the WUI and preparing communities for wildfires, visit Wildfire and the wildland urban interface (WUI) (fema.gov).
