My heart goes out to all those affected by the Coastal Fire. Please be aware of many fraudsters that are preying on victims, get professional help to review your home if you have smoke damage and talk with your insurance company about how they can help you. On a more joyous note, congratulations to all the high school and college graduates out there!
MAY 11 COASTAL FIRE, LAWSUIT FILED Over 550 fire and public safety personnel were activated to come to Laguna Niguel to help fight the Coastal Fire. Every fixed-wing aircraft from Fresno south was deployed to help put out the fire, due to the fact that there were no other fires in southern/central California at the time. Southern California Edison reported an electrical event prior to the fire, which has triggered a lawsuit filed in court on Tuesday by victims of the fire. Property damage included 20 homes lost and many dozens of smoke/fire damaged homes. 900 homes were evacuated and many more are still under mandatory evacuation orders today; the fire is 100% contained.
FUTURE FIRE SAFETY There are a lot of things you can do to protect your home. The first thing homeowners should do is call the Orange County Fire Authority at 714-573-6774 to request a wildfire home assessment. Your HOA, the city and county are on the hook for vegetation management in common spaces, canyons and other green spaces. Vegetation management should include removing dead plants as soon as possible, trimming shrubs and planting only drought tolerant plants. Please call the city and/or your HOA if you feel the brush behind your home is not well-maintained. There is a lot more we can do in the public sector to make Laguna Niguel fire safe.
CITY CENTER PUBLIC MEETING MAY 24 at 7PM If you are interested in sharing your opinions or hearing more about the City Center development that is planned on county property adjacent to City Hall, come to the May 24thPlanning Commission meeting at 7PM. Multiple items will be voted on to move the project forward.
ALERT OC DID NOT WORK, SMOKE DAMAGE A CONCERN Two residents came forward during public comments at the May 17 city council meeting with a concern that fire victims were not getting professional cleaning done for their smoke-damaged homes. They also commented directly to me that they did not get the AlertOC alert even though they lived on La Vue where a house was fire-damaged and multiple homes suffered from smoke damage. We must fix this problem with AlertOC and educate homeowners on how to clean smoke damaged homes.
