The City of Santa Rosa Water Department has issued notices to customers in select areas advising them to stop drinking tap water due to recent damage to the water system resulting from the fires. A total of 13 homes in Fountaingrove received the advisory notice after slightly elevated levels of contaminants were detected in two...
The City of Santa Rosa and County of Sonoma are encouraging residents to stay alert for landslides, sinkholes, and other rain-related issues, particularly in the fire impact areas. While these warnings are typically issued during winter rain events, there are increased risks in burn areas due to high debris levels, damaged infrastructure, and missing vegetation,...
This weekend, the City of Santa Rosa and County of Sonoma, in coordination with state and federal partners, will hold three resource fairs focused on debris removal. Residents whose properties were destroyed by the wildfires have the ability to access the government-operated Fire Debris Removal Program to ensure their property is left free of hazardous...
The County of Sonoma and the City of Santa Rosa in partnership with FEMA are transitioning both Local Assistance Centers (LACs) located in downtown Santa Rosa and Sonoma Valley to Disaster Recovery Centers (DRCs) on November 12, 2017. The LACs will close at 7:00pm Saturday, November 11th and re-open at 9:00am on Sunday, November 12th...
As a convenience, this website converts English to another language using GoogleTM Translate which provides an automated translation of the content. The tool is not perfect and the context of the text may not be taken into account during translation. As a result, the translation may lose some of its intended meaning. Some items on...
The U.S. EPA has been alerted that people affected by the Northern California fires may be receiving fraudulent calls from individuals posing as U.S. EPA staff and asking for financial information or offering grant awards. EPA is NOT asking for personal financial information like Social Security numbers or bank account numbers and is only contacting...
In preparation for anticipated rain this winter, people who live in burned areas, or downhill of burned areas, should be aware of increased risks for: Flash Flooding: Normally, rainfall is absorbed by vegetation and soils, reducing runoff. However, wildfires remove vegetation and may leave soil unable to absorb water, creating flash flood conditions. Flood risk...
The City of Santa Rosa is no longer restricting access for residents in Journey’s End Mobile Home Park Today, the City of Santa Rosa is no longer restricting access for residents to Journey’s End Mobile Home Park, located at 3575 Mendocino Avenue, now that the previously-found asbestos has been mitigated. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)...
As of November 7th, there are no more temporary shelters open. If you're in need of housing, please visit: https://www.sonomacountyrecovers.org/housing-opportunities/
Frequently clean indoor surfaces and follow by wet mopping to reduce exposure to ash indoors. Use only high efficiency particulate air (HEPA-filter) vacuum cleaners. Shop vacuums and other common vacuum cleaners do not filter out small particles, but instead can put particles back into the air where they can be inhaled. For more information: Returning to...
Do not allow children to play in the ash and wash off children’s toys before children play with them. Immediately wash any part of your body that touches ash to avoid irritation. The best protection for children is to keep them indoors to reduce their exposure until ash has been removed. Wash fruits and vegetables...
After a fire, windborne material such as ash and soil from paddocks with inadequate ground cover may be blown into streams. Once in the water, organic materials provide ideal food for bacteria and algae. These organisms grow rapidly using up all free oxygen in the water (it becomes anaerobic) and putrefaction results. Symptoms are dark...
Fire ash contains microscopic particles (dust, dirt, soot) that can be deposited on indoor and outdoor surfaces and can also be inhaled if the ash becomes airborne. Unless tested, the ash is not classified as a hazardous waste, however it may contain traces of hazardous chemicals such as metals (lead, cadmium, nickel, and arsenic), asbestos...
Given the scale of the burned area, it will be impossible to prevent the migration of ash and debris into creeks, and the concentrations of hazardous materials is unknown. Multiple agencies are working together to prevent fire-related debris, pollutants and sediment from being carried into our storm drains, creeks and rivers.
The goal is to prevent ash and debris from entering the waterways. You can help by taking simple steps by placing straw wattles, hay bales, and mulch around burned areas to reduce the chances of ashes and other material from washing into streams. To learn more, go to https://www.sonomacountyrecovers.org/rain-ready/
