โWhen the fire hit our community, I immediately called 911โฆthen put out a โone-callโ emergency alert to evacuate,โ said Bridgette Conboy, office manager at Rancho Monserate Country Club, a 55-plus resident-owned, up-scale mobile home park, located just east of Rt. 15.ย She was referring to the unforgettable Lilac fire of December 7, 2017.
โNo one in our community will ever forget that date,โ Bridgette stated.ย โWe really didnโt have an evacuation plan, but we did have residents on our Emergency Committee and others (including retired firefighters and policemen) who took it upon themselves to go door-to-door, alert their neighbors of the out-of-control blaze, and assist those who needed help to evacuate.โ
Thus, when firefighters reached the upscale mobile home park, rather than having to focus solely on evacuating residents, they were able to begin fighting the fire;ย as a result, as pointed out by NCFPD Fire Chief Steve Abbott, ย while 75 homes were lostโฆโit would have been far worse had the residents of Rancho Monserate not taken it upon themselves to mobilize when the fire broke out.โย
โFire is really scary,โ Bridgette stated.ย โWhen I tried to get to my car to leave the premises, the wind was so strong that it was difficult to even stand up.ย I looked to my left and saw the smoke;ย I looked to my right, one home was engulfed in flames and the fire department was dropping retardant.โ ย
What did Bridgette learn from this horrific experience?
โWhile our community has a โone-call systemโ designed to send out an alert by phone to all of our residents, obviously, it canโt call everyone at the same time.ย We need to find a system that will alert everyone at the same time; AND that is more complicated that it may appear, since this is a senior community and many of our residents are hard of hearing.โย Chief Abbott adds, โThis is why registering your phones and mobile devices with AlertSanDiego is so critical in keeping up to date with emergency information and evacuation instructions.
She said, further, that the Lilac fire has left many of the residents at Rancho Monserate somewhat paranoid,ย including her.ย โEvery time the wind starts blowing hard,ย Iโm now uneasy and so are many of our residents.ย The fire department was conducting a controlled fire not long ago;ย residents in the community smelled smoke, saw the flamesโฆthen panicked.
โMost all, however, I learned that we have really good people in this park, Bridgette concluded, โand that our fire department in Fallbrook is comprised of extremely competent and well-trained firefighters and paramedics.ย Cleary, we are in excellent hands.โ
