Fire Danger is a persistent and ever-present part of our California lives. Since UC Santa Cruz is situated amidst both forest and grasslands, taking stock of our current environment helps us both understand and mitigate the hazards that our community faces.
Fire Danger is not a static label, it is a measurement of risk given a variety of conditions. In this article we will explain what the risk of fire danger means, how risk is determined, and why we present such foreboding signs at the entrances to our campus.
Why the Signs?
The fire danger signs that you see at the entrances to campus are designed to inform our campus community. It is easy for us to ignore fire danger when fires seem both far away and rarely impact our specific campus. When we ignore that danger, we may take actions assuming it simply does not exist.
Examples of these actions can run the gamut between simply not knowing what to do in case of a fire to actively igniting illegal campfires or barbecues.
By having these signs at the front of our campus, they serve as both a reminder and an update to our community. In doing so, they accomplish two primary tasks:
Remind our community that fire danger is always present on our campus.
Inform our community regarding the degree of danger the current environmental conditions pose.
The first step of preparedness and readiness is simply knowing what is possible. Put simply, fires are possible on our campus. Informing our community of that possibility and providing resources to help our community prepare for them, prevent them, and respond to them are core responsibilities of the Designated Campus Fire Marshal.
Rank | State | Gifts |
---|---|---|
1 | CA | 3 |
2 | HI | 1 |
3 | AA | 0 |