By Sean Ridgway, TME

The Condor Room at the Clubhouse in Pine Mountain Club (PMC) hosted a fire preparedness meeting on Sunday, March 9, 2025. The Emergency Preparedness Committee (EP), Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Kern County Fire Department (KCFD), Kern Fire Safe Council, Radio Safety Net, and the United States Forest Service all made presentations. The topic of discussion was how mountain residents can get their homes, yards, and community prepared for the possibility of a fire.

Karina Medina spoke on behalf of the Forest Service about what they do to help prevent and prepare for fire. Medina said during red-flag warnings, such as the warnings earlier this year during the Southern California wildfires, the Forest Service strategically “pre-positions” fire resources where they may be needed. It is because of pre-positioning that the Forest Service was able to stop the spread so quickly when the Hughes Fire broke out in Santa Clarita.

“When alarm bells rang for the Hughes Fire, initial response was huge and attacked the fire quickly… Within 48 hours, [they had a good handle] on the Hughes Fire because of pre-positioning.”….(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Above: Fire Engineer Ethan Kennedy gives speech in PMC

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This is part of the March 14, 2025 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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