Applications Being Accepted for Fire Safety, Public Education Grants
May 06, 2022 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
SACRAMENTO, Calif.--( BUSINESS WIRE )--During California’s Wildfire Preparedness Week May 1-7, 2022, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and the California Fire Foundation (CFF) are announcing their continued partnership in support of wildfire safety and preparedness. PG&E and The PG&E Corporation Foundation (Foundation) are providing, in the aggregate, $1.4 million to CFF’s Wildfire Safety and Preparedness Program (WSPP). Now in its fifth year, the program’s objective is to raise public awareness about wildfire safety and deliver resources to underserved communities in high fire-risk areas. It includes a grant program that awarded 54 local fire departments, fire agencies and community groups $670,000 in funding last year. Fire departments and community-based organizations in California now can submit applications for this year’s wildfire safety and awareness grants. Applications must be submitted by 11:45 p.m. on June 17, 2022 at the CFF website . Award notification will begin mid-July, 2022. Since 2018, the CFF, which administers and manages the WSPP, has awarded 199 grants to fire departments and fire agencies statewide, focusing its efforts in Northern and Central California. Funding targets communities identified as having extreme or elevated fire risk as identified by the California Public Utilities Commission. “California’s drought, coupled with drier, hotter conditions are putting communities at risk. The Wildfire Safety and Preparedness Program is a partnership with PG&E that was created to address the increasing wildfire risk,” said Rick Martinez, Executive Director of CFF. “Our partnership over the last five years, in which California has seen an increase in fire activity, has played an important role in helping local communities become more fire-safe. ”
“At PG&E we’ve taken a stand that catastrophic wildfires shall stop. But we know we can’t do it alone. It will take all of us working together to mitigate the wildfire risk, and help our hometowns be better prepared and be more resilient to this growing threat,” said Sumeet Singh, PG&E Executive Vice President, Chief Risk Officer and Interim Chief Safety Officer. How the Grants Help Communities
Over the past five years, PG&E has provided $6 million in total support for fire safety awareness through the WSPP. The charitable contribution is shareholder-funded, not paid for by PG&E customers. Since 2018, WSPP has funded:
Specialized fire equipment and personal protective equipment
Defensible space and vegetation management efforts
Fuel/hazard reduction programs
Fire prevention and emergency preparedness education including senior citizen wildfire preparedness programs
Fire safety outreach campaigns including 12,000 brochures targeting underserved communities in English, Spanish, Chinese, Hmong and Vietnamese
Partnerships with community groups in high fire-risk areas to distribute fire-safety information
The WSPP develops and distributes in-language fire-safety messaging targeting Spanish, Chinese, Hmong, and Vietnamese communities. These efforts include a comprehensive media campaign consisting of outdoor billboards and in-language television, radio, and digital ads. The CFF, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, aids firefighters, their families and the communities they protect. The CFF’s Firefighters on Your Side program, also supported by PG&E, provides multi-lingual, culturally relevant fire safety messaging in both digital and print form, to assist the public in staying safe. About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit pge.com and pge.com/news . About California Fire Foundation
The California Fire Foundation, a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization, provides emotional and financial assistance to families of fallen firefighters, firefighters and the communities they protect. Formed in 1987 by California Professional Firefighters, the California Fire Foundation’s mandate includes an array of survivor and victim assistance projects and community initiatives. cafirefoundation.org
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PG&amp;E and California Fire Foundation Join Forces to Bolster Wildfire Safety and Preparedness

Wildfire relief fund helps recovering Oregon communities
ODOT file
By Eric Tegethoff, Oregon News Service
PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The 2020 wildfires devastated Oregon communities, burning more than a million acres and destroying many homes. Grants from the AARP Foundation are helping some Oregonians get back on their feet. Noreen Dunnells, president and CEO of the United Way of Lane County, which received one of the grants, said the September fires displaced 1,200 people in the community and the blazes were unpredictable, taking some houses and leaving others intact. "There's a lot of people who are grieving and there's survivors' guilt for those who didn't lose their property, or lost part of it but still are living upriver," Dunnells observed. "It's had a profound effect on individuals and families living in that community." Dunnells emphasized her organization has pivoted toward helping local people community rebuild. The AARP Foundation's  Wildfire Relief Fund  has given $100,000 to the Center for Nonprofit Legal Services in Jackson County, and $50,000 each to the United Ways of Jackson County and Lane County. Bandana Shrestha, director of community engagement for AARP Oregon, said seniors were hit hard by the fires. "Older adults and people with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by disasters, and the wildfires were no exception," Shrestha explained. "We've heard so many stories about how older adults, for instance, in the city of Talent and Phoenix were displaced because of the fires." In Jackson County, more than 1,000 people were displaced and mobile homes, apartment complexes, subdivisions and a senior assisted-living facility burned down. The United Way of Jackson County's first round of applications for relief helped more than 800 families, with nearly $2 million in grants. Dee Anne Everson, executive director for the group, said they've received donations from all 50 states and five countries. "The devastation we suffered has been remarkable," Everson acknowledged. "And in direct conjunction with that, the generosity has been equally remarkable." The AARP Foundation raised $1 million to help communities respond to disasters in 2020 across the country. News / Oregon-Northwest

Wildfire relief fund helps recovering Oregon communities

August 20, 2020 | FinExtra | Shares: 0
Backbase today announces that Michigan-based Wildfire Credit Union (Wildfire) has selected the Backbase Digital-First Banking platform to drive their digital innovation and unify the member experience
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Wildfire Credit Union selects Backbase for multichannel overhaul

Wildfire smoke creating problems for Covid-19 patients, at-risk residents
    San Francisco, CA ( KPIX ) —  While the smoke from the many fires burning in Northern California is unpleasant for local residents,  in the era of COVID-19, it can lead to some serious health risks. The Bay Area has been under a Spare the Air alert since Tuesday. The current alert has been extended through Sunday due to the fires raging across the region. “It’s really become the new normal that we have these megafires that foul our air,” said Dr. John Balmes, a UCSF Professor of Medicine with a focus on occupational and environmental medicine as well as pulmonary and critical care. Several UCSF doctors laid out some of the dangers presented by wildfire smoke. Healthy people will experience things like eye, nose, throat and airway irritation. But for people with respiratory conditions like asthma and COPD and those with heart disease, it’s even worse. “The immune response is altered by air pollution exposure,” explained Dr. Balmes. UCSF Assistant Professor of Medicine Dr. Stephanie Christenson said the particles are tiny but damaging. “They’re about 20-30 times smaller than the diameter of a follicle of hair; very, very small,” said Dr. Christenson. “And they can get in an lodged deeply in the lung and cause inflammation.”
Currently, doctors are not positive the smoke can make people more susceptible to COVID-19 or worsen symptoms, but some studies do make an association. “If you’ve already got worse symptoms from your COVID-19 — more cough, more shortness of breath — and now we’ve given you another insult, that could make matters worse,” said Dr. Christenson. High-risk individuals are advised to stay indoors if possible to protect themselves. “Keeping the windows closed, having good ventilation, closed ventilation,” said Dr. Christenson. “An air purifier if you can swing it.”
Unfortunately, the wearing of facial covering as required in public by the pandemic wont do much good as far a smoke. “The regular cloth masks probably do very little to protect you from wildfire smoke exposure,” said UCSF Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine Dr. Jahan Fahimi. “But certainly they will mitigate the transmission of COVID-19, so there’s definitely some benefit there. “
Resources to track the air quality in the Bay Area are available online at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District website and the EPA’s Air Now website. Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

Wildfire smoke creating problems for Covid-19 patients, at-risk residents

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