Modesto Norcal FPO Meeting Minutes – Wildland-Urban Interface Committee

October 22, 2003

Present:

Tonya Hoover – Co-chair, Moraga-Orinda Fire District

Mike Mentink – San Ramon Valley Fire

Forrest Craig – Novato Fire District

Leslie Haberek – State Fire Marshal’s Office

Hugh Council – State Fire Marshal’s Office 

  1. The committee received a briefing from Leslie concerning the current status of the UWI Chapter 7A Building Standard. There was quite a discussion on the need to see this chapter move forward. The Fire Service will be pushing for a March submittal to the Building Standards Commission. The current draft is available on the SFM website and comments are to be forwarded to the SFM office prior to December 1, 2004.
  2. Kate gave a recent presentation to the American Planners Association in October. The presentation was very successful. Kate and Mike will be giving a similar presentation to the California Planning Commissioners (in Pleasanton) in November.
  3. Tonya and Kate will be attending the WUI Conference in Denver (in October). Based on information obtained at the workshop/conference, a short presentation will be provided at a NorCal meeting on a later date.
  4. The certification concept is moving forward with the documentation being "cleaned up" by the UC Extension at UC Davis. There is still much support from the insurance industry, planners and fire service.
  5. It is felt that the presentations provided at the Cal Chiefs’ Annual Meeting was successful. Positive remarks were received from folks who attended both presentations.
  6. The annual committee report will be provided to the NorCal Board of Directors by the November Nor
    Cal meeting. The annual report will give a brief recap of the items the committee has been working on throughout the year.
  7. Kate and Tonya will be meeting with Chief Grajava to discuss movement of Chapter 7A and the Fire Safe Inspector series.
  8. The committee would like to hear from any department that has building standards that address specific construction issues for the wildland-urban interface. We would like to continue to post the information on the fire prevention officers’ webpage. 

For detailed information concerning any of the above topics, please feel free to contact the committee co-chairs.