Red Flag volunteers are ready to report

OUR LAGUNA

Another 25 recruits signed on Saturday to help make Laguna Beach

more fire resistant.

They will be easy to recognize. Whenever the Laguna Beach Fire

Department declares conditions are ripe for disaster, the volunteers

will don their red caps, display red flags on their vehicles and take

to the back roads, looking for a vagrant puff of smoke, a sniff of

burning brush.

Flags also will be made available to local businesses on Laguna

Canyon Road and North and South Coast Highway. Visibility is one key

to the success of the Red Flag Patrol program.

“We want to see every business in Laguna Canyon and on South and

North Coast Highway displaying the flags on red alert days,” said

Fire Department Battalion Chief Mark Baker.

The Red Flag Patrol is sponsored by the Laguna Coast Fire Safety

Council and organized in conjunction with the Laguna Beach Fire

Department and the Orange County Fire Authority.

“Mark’s really good at this,” said David Horne, council founder.

“We now have over 50 volunteers.”

Saturday’s was the second Red Flag Patrol training session

conducted by Baker.

“Use your common sense, stay safe, but be visible, we want

everybody out there to know people are watching,” Baker told the

recruits.

Volunteers work in pairs, one to drive and one to observe. Each

patrol lasts two hours. Patrols are out from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. until

the fire department calls off the red flag alert. All should carry

cell phones and be aware of “black holes.”

Each volunteer is equipped with an instruction binder that

contains information on what to watch for, actions to take, maps, a

disposable camera, picture identification, and soon, sites of public

telephones.

There are some areas in town -- don’t we all know it -- where cell

phones don’t work.

“Patrols should know the location of public telephone locations,

said trainee Gene Cooper.

He volunteered to get the list.

Ilse Lenschow, of North Laguna has volunteered to be in charge of

flag distribution and display. For more information about the flags,

call 494-1241.

Patrols are only called out when the weather is hot, the humidity

low and the winds high.

On patrol, teams are encouraged to talk to the public as well as

watch for signs of fire. They are told to ask for cooperation and to

encourage membership in the Red Flag Patrol.

“If they are the kind of people who don’t play nicely with others,

back off,” Baker said. “We have an adage in the fire department: At

the end of the day, everybody goes home safely to their family.”

The cell phone is the volunteer’s first line of communication. The

California Highway Patrol will be on the other end.

“Just ask for the Laguna Beach Fire Department or Police

Department,” Mark said. “If you get the wrong one, don’t worry, we

all talk to one another.”

“We also have a great working relationship with the Orange County

Fire Authority, a mutual aid pact.”

911 also works just fine for non-Red Flag members and timely

information is appreciated.

Any illegal activity should be reported immediately.

“If your common sense tells you the activity is illegal, it

probably is,” Baker said.

Fire works and firearms are illegal. So is smoking in fire areas,

even in a closed vehicle. Less egregious activity can be reported the

next day.

Abandoned vehicles should be reported if the engines or tailpipes

are hot.

“If they are dusty and appear to have been there a while, make a

note and we’ll get a code enforcement officer out there the next

day,” Baker said.

Hikers and bikers are out in the wilderness parks everyday, but

the parks are closed on Red Flag Alert days. If seen, patrol

volunteers are advised to contact park officials. That walking ray of

sunshine, Park Ranger Barbara Norton, is a Red Flag volunteer.

Red Flag Alert days are most common from September to November,

but can occur any time of the year, especially during dry years, such

as California has experienced this winter.

Red Flag Patrol training, including a slide show, and equipment is

funded by a grant written by Horne, who lost a home in the 1993

firestorm.

“We don’t want a repeat of ‘93,” said Baker. “We don’t even want a

repeat of a couple of weeks ago.”

On July 26, a fire broke out just after noon in Laguna Canyon,

burning 82 acres before it was contained, officially, at 6 a.m., the

next day.

Quick action by the person who accidentally started the fire and

the rapid response of fire officials is credited with containing the

fire before it raged out of control. With the Red Flag Patrol on the

march, fire officials hope to get an even quicker jump.

Trainees at Saturday’s session included Farmers Insurance broker

Gary Watkins, Debra and Hesh Lensky, Sandy Keith, Craig Wells, Cherie

Fortin-O’Grady, Jeanne Brown and Nancy Grant.

For more information about the Red Flag Patrol, visit

www.lagunacoastfire safecouncil.org or call 494-6220.

Beach wheels

The City Council accepted Tuesday night the donation of a beach

wheelchair by Pat DeMar and Michael Laux, who collected private and

corporate donations for the gift to the city.

Each wheelchair costs $1,900. They are made of lightweight

materials with balloon tires that provide transportation on sand for

physically-challenged surf-lovers.

DeMar is one such. She was a highly-acclaimed jewelry maker and

clothing designer in town when she was stricken more than a decade

ago with a degenerative muscular disease.

Her love of the beach prompted the couple to raise the funds for

two beach chairs in 1995.

The chairs have been housed in the Marine Safety Headquarters.

Check-outs are overseen by lifeguards.

Heavy use has taken its toll of the chairs. So once more, DeMar

and Laux rose to the occasion.

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box

248, Laguna Beach, 92652, hand-deliver to 384 Forest Ave., Suite 22;

call 494-4321 or fax 494-8979.