photo credit: Courtesy of Robins Cloud LLP
Jack and Gayle Daniels' home in Napa County
after it was destroyed in the 2017 Atlas Fire.
A jury awarded the Daniels roughly $4.3 million
in damages after finding State Farm left them
underinsured.

It's fire season and the Napa County Board of Supervisors is focusing on resilience.

This week, the board announced the appointment of the county's first fire administrator, David Shew, whose role becomes effective Oct. 30. They also reviewed a year-to-date report from their county fire department on the county's many current fire protection measures.

Shew's 32 years with Cal Fire includes 15 years in the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit, and he served in several roles at the Napa County Fire Department. Originally schooled as an architect, Shew attended the Executive Fire Officer program at the National Fire Academy and currently serves on the board of directors for the California Fire Safe Council.

In his new role, he will oversee the distribution of $37.5 million in federal wildfire resiliency grants.

The county was notified last week that they were awarded the funds to bolster the Napa County Community Wildfire Protection Plan, an all-encompassing wildfire mitigation program reinforcing long-term wildfire and climate resilience, according to Napa County spokesperson Holly Dawson.

"The team will be meeting with FEMA and going over details, but that whole process takes close to a year," Dawson said.

At Tuesday's board meeting, the supervisors also heard a year-to-date report on the county's many fire prevention measures from Deputy County Fire Chief Jason Martin.

"Six years ago, on Oct. 8, 2017, Napa County suffered the impacts of the Atlas and Tubbs fires, which resulted in the burning of almost 160,000 acres in our unit," Martin said as he began to list program updates.

As of September, 203 maps have been downloaded from the county's Fuel Mapper site. Fuel Mapper is an online tool that allows community members to download illustrated satellite images of their properties, view the range of their defensible space, and learn the optimal ways to clear and trim trees and brush around their land.

Residents can request free chipping service from the county fire department. The calls have increased to 1,041 requests from 647 last year. After grooming their land and buildings into fire-resistant properties and passing a code inspection, residents can receive a compliance certificate, which can be used to fortify an insurance claim should disaster strike in the future.

"This year, we completed 3,510 defensible space inspections," Martin said of the certificate-granting program. "The same time last year we completed 2,388 properties. This is the most we've ever done in Napa."

"Here's the big one," he said, referencing their collaborative program with the Napa Community Firewise Foundation to clear underbrush and highly combustible fuels from public lands and roads. "At the end of 2020, we had treated 287 acres. So far this year we've treated 566 acres. In 2020, we treated 65 roadside clearing miles, where this year we've treated 110 roadside miles."

They have also worked with neighboring Cal Fire departments to clear dead and downed trees and burn them in piles.

Goats are increasingly deployed by the county fire department, and sometimes private citizens, to clear dry brush. In 2020, the department didn't have any grazing projects.

"This year we've grazed 300 acres with a projected 566 acres once completed," Martin said, showing a map of the annual grasses that have been eaten since January.