Interviews with California and national emergency response leaders who talk about what they've learned from the most challenging moments of their careers.
Episodes
Friday Jun 18, 2021
Friday Jun 18, 2021
This episode of All Hazards (#86) takes you on a walking tour of Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The CZU Complex fire burned nearly all of the 18,000-acre park beginning in August, 2020, a significant portion of the 86,000 acres that burned in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The good news is most of the massive redwoods survived; however, the park’s infrastructure is gone. Our guide, Joanne Kerbavaz, is a senior environmental scientist with California State Parks. Learn about the damage done, and how the miracles of nature are evident in new life after wildfires.
To see our photo gallery and upcoming video of our Big Basin tour, visit
https://news.caloes.ca.gov/podcast-86-come-…woods-state-park/
Big Basin Redwoods State Park contains more than 18,000 acres of redwood forest including the largest ancient redwood grove south of San Francisco
CZU August Lightning Complex Fire = devastating structural losses including the destruction of the park’s historic headquarters, campgrounds, and the newly renovated Nature Museum.
You can help. Click here for how: Donate to MPF's Big Basin Recovery Fund
Sempervirens Fund is California’s first land trust and the only organization dedicated exclusively to protecting the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Save the Redwoods League is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and restore California redwoods and connect people to the peace and beauty of redwood forests. Together they are raising support for the Big Basin Recovery Fund, with 100% of proceeds going to California State Parks for the immediate recovery of Big Basin Redwoods State Park. This fund will lay the groundwork for the long-term rebuilding of this treasure of the California State Parks system.
Donate to Save the Redwoods League to support the Big Basin Recovery Fund
Sempervirens Fund has also created a Santa Cruz Redwoods Restoration Fund to restore redwoods in the rest of the Santa Cruz mountains affected by the wildfires. Donate to Sempervirens Fund to support the Santa Cruz Redwoods Restoration Fund
Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks (Friends) is a vital partner with California State Parks, creatively working to ensure our cherished local parks and beaches are thriving and available to all. They are creating the Friends Fire Relief Fund for direct, short-term assistance as well as longer-term recovery efforts at Big Basin Redwoods State Park and other parks in the Santa Cruz Mountains impacted by the CZU Lightning Complex Fires.
Donate to Friends Fire Relief Fund
Take a listen to our first podcast episode on Big Basin, recorded just weeks after the fire was contained.
http://www.oesnews.com/podcast-czu-torches-big-basin-redwoods-we-will-make-memories-here-again/
Tuesday Apr 20, 2021
Tuesday Apr 20, 2021
In the words of our guest for this episode, “Table top is one thing. Getting your knuckles dirty is another.” Cal OES Assistant Fire Joe Gear takes a few minutes to sit down and talk with us about his role as incident commander, and that of Cal OES’s role, as well as the overall operations for Sentinel Response 2021. This is a detailed, complex all-of-government exercise that puts local, state, federal and military responders through the ringer during a two-day, hands-on training drill. This annual event usually takes place in Region-2, though it did happen in Sacramento in 2018. This time, the training site is the Naval Weapons Station Concord, a World War II-era military base that has long-since been decommissioned pending full closure. Nevertheless, the Navy offered it as the site for this year’s exercise.
References and Links
California Fire and Rescue Training Authority
Sentinel Response 18 FSE and Interagency Cooperation
INSIDE LOOK: Sentinel Response 2018
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Tuesday Mar 09, 2021
Tuesday Mar 09, 2021
This episode of All Hazards (#84) takes us to the front lines of the fight against Covid-19, the vaccination super site located at Cal State Los Angeles. We sit down with some of the top leadership there:
David Stone, Cal OES Fire & Rescue Branch
Jack Nelson, FEMA
Major LeRoy Cisneros, California Army National Guard
Lt. Col. Andy Olson, Active Duty Army
All four have their own areas of responsibility and face unique and similar challenges. How are they meeting those challenges, and what are they? What is it like to be part of history as they manage (in unified command) the first-ever Type-I Vaccination Super Site, one that’s becoming a model for all others nationwide?
Let’s find out.
Links
MyTurn
Covid19.ca.gov
Tuesday Feb 23, 2021
Tuesday Feb 23, 2021
In this episode (#83) we talk with Michelle Mead, Meteorologist In Charge - at the National Weather Service in Sacramento. We talk about the role the meteorologist plays during the response and recovery efforts for a disaster.
Ms. Mead graduated in 1994 with a BS degree in Earth Science with an emphasis in Meteorology from St. Cloud State University. She has been with the NWS since 1994, and has worked across the country in her 27 year career. Sacramento, California, is her current and 6th office. During her tenure, she has dealt with weather phenomena such as severe weather in the midwest to the Foehn winds, snow, mountain meteorology and Fire Weather of the intermountain west and California. Since her arrival in Sacramento, she has been very hands-on with her office staff and the communities we serve. She is also a wife and mother of twin 16 year old boys. Therefore, her spare time is mostly eaten up by family duties which, of course, she loves. She also likes to workout and decorate her home for the holidays, no matter what holiday.
Links
NWS Forecast Office Sacramento, CA
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
Be sure to visit OES News for more images and podcast information.
In this episode of All Hazards, he’s THE public information officer for his fire department. No, not a small hamlet in rural California. San Francisco, California. Can you believe this legendary fire department has one person handling public information request, media relations, crisis communications, public affairs, education and more? He gets support from his department but that’s a lot of work and responsibility for one person. But he does it, and judging by those who know him, he does it well.
Lt. Jonathan Baxter will talk to us about how he’s able to be stretched so far and maintain a high standard of work and sanity! One secret I can share with you - he loves what he does.
Whether you’re a PIO or not, there’s a lot you can learn from this conversation, so grab your favorite hot or cold beverage and settle-in.
Baxter started his career in Public Safety at the age of 14 working as an explorer scout with the City of Paso Robles Police Department. He attended EMT school at the age of 17, obtaining his EMT certificate just past my 18th birthday in 1989. He was shortly thereafter hired with the San Luis County Ambulance service part time as well as the San Luis Obispo County Fire Department.
At the age 18, he was asked to participate in a trial paramedic program put on by the Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula, in the Carmel Valley. He obtained his Paramedic license at the age of 19, becoming the youngest paramedic In the State of California at the time.
In early 1990 Baxter got hired as a full time Paramedic with Golden Empire Ambulance in Bakersfield California, and part time with Delano Wasco Ambulance service in the Inland Empire as a Paramedic. From late 1990 to 1998 he was employed full time as a Firefighter Paramedic with the City of Sonoma Fire Department.
Let it be known that also from 1990 to 2000, in addition to his full-time career, he also worked part time as a Paramedic for AMR SF, Guerneville Fire, Bodega Bay Fire, Sonoma County EMS, and Occidental Fire.
Additionally, Baxter also worked part-time as a Firefighter/EMT and Fire Investigator for the Glen Ellen Fire Protection District from 1991-2010.
From 1998 to 2000, he worked full-time for the City of Hayward Fire Department as a Firefighter Paramedic.
In January of 2000, he started his career with the San Francisco Fire Department. From 2000 to 2006 he worked around the City as a Firefighter Paramedic, and Rescue Swimmer. From 2006 to 2016, he volunteered to be assigned to Engine 1, which was at the time the busiest fire engine in America, per Fire House Magazine. With over 500 public contacts per month, personal pride and integrity drove he and his fellow crew members to provide equal, and above standard service to every customer (citizen).
From 2008 to 2016, he worked as a temporary lieutenant on fire suppression apparatus (Mostly Engine 1). On January the 18th of 2016, he was hand-selected by Chief Joanne Hayes-White to become the SFFD’s Public Information Officer. While in that role, he was promoted to lieutenant in May of 2016 based off my rankings on a civil service test.
Links & Mentions
Rebuilding Together San Francisco
Rebuilding Together Sacramento
The Bay Area Urban Areas Security Initiative
Citizen: Connect and Stay Safe
FEMA Emergency Management Institute (EMI)
Wednesday Dec 16, 2020
Wednesday Dec 16, 2020
In this episode (#81) we talk with Grady Joseph, Cal OES Assistant Director for the Covid19 Logistics Task Force. Learn about the complexity inherent in the logistical response to this pandemic in California. He talks about the early challenges of PPE procurement, scams, price gouging, vaccines and their distribution, the task forces created, California Medical Stations, alternate care facilities, supply chain breakdown and building hospital system capacity.
Grady Joseph is the Assistant Director of Recovery Operations at the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. In this capacity, he oversees the State’s implementation of FEMA’s Public Assistance Program, California Disaster Assistance Act funding, Statewide Debris Operations, and serves as the executive sponsor for technology modernization of the Recovery Directorate. Prior to Cal OES, he served in key advisory and Recovery leadership roles in the private sector as well as at FEMA Headquarters and Region IX, with a primary focus on process improvement and technology modernization.
Links
Covid19.ca.gov
Fact Sheet: Explaining Operation Warp Speed
UC Davis Health is prepared to receive Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine
The first shots: Frontline health care workers receive historic COVID-19 vaccine
SLEEP TRAIN READY FOR PATIENTS CAL OES 12 09 2020
Covid19 First Vaccinations Reel
COVID 19 MEDICAL SURGE B ROLL RAW 1
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
Tuesday Nov 10, 2020
In this episode we sit down with Cal OES Deputy Director, Recovery, Ryan Buras. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Mr. Buras in June, 2019 (just in time for the year of disasters, 2020) to head our Recovery directorate due, in part, to his experience with disaster recovery efforts in the US and American territories.
Buras has been director of the National Qualification System in the National Integration Center at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, since 2017, where he has served in several positions since 2005, including senior advisor in the Office of Recovery Public Assistance and acting executive officer of the Office of Response and Recovery.
LINKS
Wildfire Recovery
Cal OES Recovery
COVID-19 Recovery
Individual Assistance
Public Assistance
FEMA Assistance
SBA Assistance
Tuesday Oct 27, 2020
Tuesday Oct 27, 2020
In episode #79 we are grateful to have CALFIRE Battalion Chief Mike Mohler as our guest. Reaching us via Zoom during this pandemic, he speaks candidly about his “implosion” on the job, which led him to seek professional help. Chief Mohler speaks of Post Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSI), intentionally differentiating his affliction from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.) What he and other first responders endure is, in fact, an injury not a disorder. Mike also talks honestly about how he contemplated suicide when he just didn’t care any more; he couldn’t numb the noise in his head. Mike is sharing his story because “we have to change that stigma because it’s OK. We’ve got people hurting across… not just our agency as you well know… every branch of military, law enforcement, fire, especially in these times. It’s time to check on our brothers and sisters and our fellow employees.”
Links
First Responder Wellness
Save a Warrior
A STUDY BY THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY INFORMATION
Career prevalence and correlates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors among firefighters
Wednesday Oct 07, 2020
Wednesday Oct 07, 2020
In this episode (#78) we talk with Chris Spohrer, District Superintendent, California State Parks, Santa Cruz District. He talks to us about the devastation to the Big Basin Redwoods State Park done by the CZU Lightning Complex Fire when it swept through beginning on August 16th; It wasn’t fully contained until September 22nd. The damage inflicted by the CZU was immense: 925 homes destroyed, 562 non-residential buildings destroyed, 999 people evacuated and one fatality.
And the Big Basin Redwoods was smack dab in the middle of it. Every one of the 18,000 acres in California’s oldest state park burned. Every park building was reduced to ash.
Now, many questions are being asked, such as where and how to begin rebuilding, what is the park’s future, and what will it look like?
If you’d like to help rebuild Big Basin Redwoods visit the sites below.
Chris Spohrer and Shawn Boyd
NON PROFIT PARTNERS SUPPORTING THEM
SEMPERVIRENS FUND
F: @SempervirensFund
SAVE THE REDWOODS LEAGUE
https://www.savetheredwoods.org/
F: @SaveTheRedwoodsLeague
T: @savetheredwoods
I: savetheredwoods
FRIENDS OF SANTA CRUZ STATE PARKS
F: @FriendsOfSantaCruzStateParks
T: @ThatsMyPark
I: friendsofscstateparks
MOUNTAIN PARKS FOUNDATION
https://www.mountainparks.org/
F: @Mountain.Parks.Foundation
T: @mountain_parks
I: mountainparksfoundation
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
In this episode (#77) we talk with two experts on the dangers of exposure to wildfire smoke. Our guests are:
Sumi Hoshiko is an environmental epidemiologist with the Environmental Health Investigations Branch, Center for Healthy Communities, in the California Department of Public Health. She has conducted research on health effects related to climate change, including wildfires and heat waves. Just recently her research has been cited in a New York Times online article on the California wildfires. She is currently the principal investigator of a research study funded by CAL FIRE that will examine the public health impacts of prescribed fire. Other areas of work have involved investigation of a variety of environmental exposures and health conditions, including tobacco smoke, chromium, perchlorate, radiation, cancer clusters, and asthma. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College.
Janice Prudhomme is a Public Health Medical Officer (PHMO III) who works in the Environmental Health Investigations Branch (EHIB) within the Center for Community Health at the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). Dr. Prudhomme is trained in Internal Medicine and Board Certified in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, having completed a fellowship at UCSF and a Master’s degree in Public Health (MPH) at UC Berkeley. Following initial work in clinical occupational medicine, she transitioned to public health roughly 2 decades ago. She has served as a Public Health Medical Officer in the Occupational Health Branch at CDPH and subsequently led Cal/OSHA’s Medical Unit. She also served as the Branch Chief for EHIB from 2014-2015. Her interests and expertise are broad-based across many occupational and environmental topics and hazards, including infectious agents, chemical exposures and physical hazards, including heat stress and wildfire smoke exposures. Current projects include updating EHIB’s educational documents pertaining to wildfire smoke and the intersection with COVID-19.
For more information, resources and links go to oesnews.com/podcast and find this episode (#76).