Fire Chief Garry MacPherson
City of Poway

During the 2003 Cedar fire, 53 homes, one business and about 7,000 acres of open space were lost in Poway. The Emergency Operations Plan that was in place at the time was dated and in dire need of an update. The past few years, Poway had found challenge in the expanding city infrastructure and had not been focused on disaster preparedness. As a result of an infusion of new leadership throughout the city, Poway took a critical look at its preparedness efforts and realized so much more could be done. In 2006, the city began an aggressive program that resulted in the rewriting of the section of the Poway Municipal Code that addressed emergency response capabilities. This had last been done in 1980.

In June 2007, the city conducted a challenging and realistic exercise that simulated a rapidly moving wildfire burning the eastern portion of the community. Local stakeholders, including the American Red Cross, the Poway Unified School District, Pomerado Hospital and the Sheriff’s Department all played an active role in this exercise. Four months later, this simulation became a reality when the Witch Creek fire roared through the community, consuming 90 homes and many more buildings. 

“I would like to believe that we have always been prepared for emergencies, as that is the business we are in,” Fire Chief Garry MacPherson says. “However, I think our current degree of preparedness allows us to say we are far more prepared today than we were two years ago.”

Since the Witch Creek fire, the city of Poway has continued to examine what can be done to improve and is always taking action to do so. “We continue to train our new and existing staff, and regularly perform tasks that will improve our capacity to quickly and efficiently respond to emergencies.”