BRIEFLY IN PUBLIC SAFETY

Pelican smashes into car windshield

A pelican that smashed into the windshield of a Laguna Beach motorist June 23 was likely suffering from algae intoxication, Star Howard, volunteer coordinator for the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center, said.

Though the driver of the car was not injured, the bird suffered a broken toe.

Certainty of the intoxication will not be known until blood tests are returned from the lab, Howard said.

The algae poisoning, known as domoic acid, has been a common sight in pelicans in sea lions.

“We’ve been getting three to four pelicans a day here for the past several weeks,” Howard said.

Birds standing in intersections, swaying their heads, stumbling and having seizures are common symptoms of the poisoning.

Fire Safe Council takes inventory

In a public meeting held June 24, the Greater Laguna Fire Safe Council took steps to become in accordance with the federally mandated Community Wildlife Protection Plan.

The meeting, attended by 15 residents and fire officials in City Hall, is part of an organizational phase of the plan.

The first objective of the council is to create programs and projects that reflect the fire safety needs of the community.

“The plan can be as simple or complex as we want it to,” chairman of the council David Horne said.

Public input to identify risk areas in Laguna Beach was recorded for future reference in adopting a plan.

The city’s infrastructure and resources were taken into consideration, as were traffic and communication concerns in the event of a fire or other natural disaster.

The group attending the meeting cited fires, floods and earthquakes as the most threatening disasters.

The council also intends to tap into the resources of the fire department and other authorities for their emergency plans. The final draft of the council’s plan will reflect an umbrella of individual emergency plans in the community.

“We’re not reinventing the wheel,” Horne said. “But the general population doesn’t have a clue there is a fire plan.”

The deadline to have the plan in place is May 31, 2007.