Young volunteers from AmeriCorps’ St. Louis emergency response team plus the Civilian Community Corps and an Wildland Fire Crew battled rain and poison oak to clear brush and dead logs on Bayview Drive in late December 2019. The week-long project was spearheaded by the Bayside Acres FireWise Committee formed by our BA HOA to help Bayside Acres become a 2020 Firesafe USA Nationally Recognized Participating Site. The committee was able to secure this highly-sought assistance program through the San Rafael Fire Department and the City of San Rafael who had teamed with AmeriCorps, a network of national service programs that gets involved with disaster, conservation and woodland fire efforts across the United States and its territories.
Sean Rule, Fire Inspector-Vegetation Management at San Rafael Fire Dept, was the liaison who coordinated a unique collaboration of the San Rafael Fire department and the Marin County Fire Department with our Bayside Acres neighborhood that straddles both city and county lines. The city contracted with AmeriCorps and the county provided chipper services.
This was a highly successful endeavor and resulted in the removal of a significant amount of brush and debris that would have been a fire hazard in the event of a wildfire. We anticipate similar events in the future as a result of our community’s successful achievement of being recognized as a 2020 Firesafe USA Nationally Recognized Participating Site.
