One Santa Clara County community with high fire risk is proactively taking steps to protect residents from disaster amid blazes in another part of the state.
The Los Gatos Town Council unanimously voted to create a full-time emergency preparedness manager position Tuesday, alongside allocating $1 million from reserves to partially cover their salary and boost wildfire and emergency initiatives. The town is beginning recruitment as soon as possible. The new position and funding aim to better address fire prevention and protection in hilly Los Gatos — a town without a fire department but is protected by the combined Santa Clara County Fire Department, of which it is a member, with sections deemed very high risk by Cal Fire.
Town Manager Chris Constantin and Mayor Matthew Hudes expedited creating the position rather than waiting for the summer budget cycle. The efforts are prompted by a heightened sense of Los Gatos’ vulnerability due to fires devastating Southern California. The fires, including the Palisades Fire, have burned more than 55,000 acres and destroyed thousands of homes in the Los Angeles area, according to Cal Fire.
Constantin has experience with wildfires. He was assistant city manager in Chico when the 2018 Camp Fire started and coated the city in ash. He was also city manager of San Dimas when the Bridge Fire threatened the community last September.
He said having someone dedicated to emergency management is a critical, necessary cost for Los Gatos. The position is expected to cost $95,000 for the remainder of the 2024-25 fiscal year, after which it will cost $308,000 annually.
“Knowing that we do have limited resources, I believe that this priority is a priority that we definitely cannot wait to implement and that we should be implementing today,” Constantin said at the meeting.
Los Gatos has a 2024 Community Wildfire Protection Plan, but the town hasn’t ever had a full-time emergency preparedness manager, according to officials.
That hasn’t stopped hillside residents from taking steps to protect their homes.
Peter Hertan, who’s lived in Los Gatos since 1977, is an active member of the town’s Community Emergency Response Team and helps with its amateur emergency radio program. His 35-home neighborhood is a certified Firewise community, meaning his community has taken recommended steps to reduce fire risk, such as clearing vegetation 5 feet away or more from the home and installing fire-resistant roofs.
Hertan’s home was threatened in the 1980s by a fire on the other side of the hill. He said the experience forced him to acknowledge the risk and spurred him to act. He wants some of the $1 million to go toward informing residents about fire prevention and protection.
“The single biggest thing that can be done is community education and getting people to recognize what is needed to make their homes fire safe,” Hertan told San José Spotlight.
Hertan and his neighborhood’s efforts reflect what officials consider key: residents working to make their homes safer in addition to local government efforts. Los Gatos cannot remove dry brush and wood from the perimeter of private property, known as hardscaping — but homeowners can.
Hudes said that’s why fire education is important. He hardscaped his home at the base of the hills and wants to see more preventative action in Los Gatos.
“It’s time to raise the awareness, give (residents) the education, the tools and to encourage that we duplicate the successes that have occurred in some neighborhoods across all of the neighborhoods that are at risk,” Hudes told San José Spotlight.
Erica Ray, county fire spokesperson, said it’s the perfect time for Los Gatos’ initiative because the factors contributing to the fires down south, such as drought and heavy winds, aren’t a large concern in the county right now. She said acting before disaster is crucial.
“We hear over and over again that wildfire knows no jurisdiction, knows no bounds,” she told San José Spotlight. “The more that neighbors can work together to harden the town as a whole against wildfire spread, the safer everyone will be.”
Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X.
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