By Landon Olson

PARADISE -- In the event of a disaster, Fire Chief Troy Fredrickson wants to be prepared.

At the Town Council meeting Wednesday, Fredrickson presented to the council the efforts underway to create an emergency preparedness plan.

Because of their organization and prominence in the community, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' wards are going to be an asset and driving force in the plan, Fredrickson said.

The plan calls for creating block areas of five to seven houses and having one block captain. Those in a block area will get to know each other and be responsible for looking out for each other during an emergency. They will also make a list of supplies that would be potentially valuable in an emergency and know who to contact for certain goods.

To explain how the plan would work, Fredrickson used the example of an earthquake. He said everybody in a block party would check on everybody else, and then, once the block members had done this, they would report to an incident command center, most likely centralized at an LDS church. When the residents report to the center, they can then provide assistance to others.

Triage centers would also be set up at the churches to attend to the injured. If a church were unusable due to damage, the parking lot would serve as a backup.

After residents had gathered at the churches, an emergency medical technician, with a group of helpers from the citizen pool, could be sent out to help find the injured.

"Communication will probably be down so we'll be going by sight," Fredrickson said.

The fire department would also be in action, but mainly to provide assistance to the injured, not fight fires. In an emergency, water would be limited and restricted for life saving, Fredrickson said.

"If your house is on fire, you can probably bet it is going to burn down," he said. "We will not fight fires in this catastrophe."

One potential component of the plan would to provide every house with green and red ribbons to indicate status. A green ribbon outside would mean all is clear and rescuers could move on. No ribbon or a red ribbon could indicate someone in need.

This would help utilize the scarce resources the town would have at its disposal in an emergency, Fredrickson said.

"We don't have the resources or the manpower to be able to go house to house," he said.

Fredrickson said the plan is something that he is trying to help implement through the whole fire district.

"It's not something new we're inventing," said firefighter Blake Pulsipher. "Incident command has been in place for years in fire systems."

Mayor Lee Atwood said, "We're headed in the right direction. Hopefully we'll never have to use that."

In other business, the town renewed its yearly animal control contract. It also revised its plans for ensuring dogs are registered.

Previously, the town was planning to go door-to-door to check on whether dogs were registered, but this method was found to be illegal. Instead, a dog running at large is a violation of a city ordinance, and if the dog is followed home, licensing and shots can be checked.

In the past, animal control officer Jon Hester has responded to the town on a call basis, but plans were discussed to have him patrol weekly.

NW
TJ

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