I watched in horror as the Santa Ana winds in Southern California last month reached hurricane-strength speeds which spread fires through entire neighborhoods leaving death and destruction.

Pasadena was my home for nearly a decade and I still go down to visit my family there several times a year. I worked in video production and local television while I was down there, and our studio was in Altadena. I have good friends there who lost everything.

It’s easy to imagine the same thing happening to San Francisco. The 1906 earthquake and fires are an unforgettable part of our history. With most of our City’s neighborhoods made up of homes sitting shoulder to shoulder, this concept of a fire ripping through our dense clusers of houses is a horrifying thought.

Lessons learned from the 1906 fires taught us that flexible hoses and earthquake resistent water systems are critical to the survival of our beloved City.

Indeed, the east side of San Francisco was equipped with such a system, but that was before the Outside Lands – the west side – was fully developed.

The Richmond Review and Sunset Beacon newspapers printed many stories about the need to upgrade our emergeny firefighting water system. To read about the progress of the upgrade, visit our website, RichmondSunsetNews.com, and look toward the top of the home page for “The Best of RSN.” Follow that link to “Links to our Comprehensive Coverage of Firefighting Challenges.” There you will find links to stories dating back to 2017.

I recently contacted a couple of our westside supervisors, Connie Chan in District 1 in the Richmond and Joel Engardio in Disrtict 4 in the Sunset, and asked them for an update I could share with our readers.

Chan wrote: “Hello Michael, timely inquiry. Our team is working to schedule another public hearing on emergency firefighting water system plan at Land Use Committee in January or early February, so more to come.”

Engardio wrote: “Hi Michael, I have long been an advocate for investing in the auxiliary water system on the west side. Even before I became a supervisor, I wrote about it in my San Francisco Examiner column after the civil grand jury investigated it in 2019.

“The report said ‘city leaders have known about this deficiency for decades’ and ‘should make the expansion of emergency firefighting protections to all San Franciscans a matter of high priority before it is too late.’

“I recently wrote a blog post* with a video demonstration about what the fire department is doing to keep the west side safe with a high-powered pump technology called a hose tender.

“This was presented by our former fire chief. We have a new fire chief and mayor now, and we need to get their thoughts on this issue.

“I would also recommend you reach out to Maryellen Carroll, the director of the Department of Emergency Management.”

(*The blog post mentioned had this as its hyperlink: https://engardio.com/blog/hose-tender.)

Concerned citizens should join us in continuing to ask our leaders about fire fighting preparedness in our vulnerable part of the city.

Meanwhile, it has been heartwarming to see the many tributes to the firefighting heroes who bravely risk their lives to save ours as they endure hellish conditions. We owe such a great debt of gratitude to public safety professionals. Thank you.

Lunar New Year

On Feb. 9, Sunset Mercantile is offering a great way to spend Super Bowl Sunday before the game starts.

The Outer Sunset Farmers Market will celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Neighbors will be celebrating the year of the snake in collaboration with the Sunset Chinese Cultural District.

They have a lot of fun activites planned, including music, performances, arts and crafts, special activites for kids and the traditional lion dance.

Most neighbors know by now that local farmers offer fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and more on 37th Avenue, between Ortega and Quintara streets. Artisans have interesting jewelry, art and other items. Food trucks dish up fresh offerings of a variety of food types and tastes.

Since I’m out at plenty of events, I meet lots of people who are new to our community. It’s fun watching them discover the charms of the Sunset and the west side.

Michael Durand is the editor and publisher of the Richmond Review and Sunset Beacon newspapers and the RichmondSunsetNews.com website. He can be reached at Editor@RichmondSunsetNews.com.