3 minute read
Taking Responsibility for Ourselves and our
BY ALI SAHABI
There’s a big push in Orange County to make canyon communities safer against wildfire.
Much of this is driven by legislation, including Chapter 7A building codes requiring features such as tempered glass, screened vents and non-flammable materials that can dramatically increase the chances of a building surviving a fire.
Canyon and mountain communities are also pushing for resilience on their own: forming Fire Safe Councils to encourage neighbors to do their part to protect themselves and their community.
“We educate our neighbors so not only are we taking responsibility for our property, but also realizing what we do on our property impacts our neighbor’s property, which impacts the neighborhood, which impacts the whole community…” Mountain Rim Fire Safe Council President Laura Dyberg recently told the Orange County Register.
Responsibility for self and others
The chain of responsibility, as Dyberg explains it, demonstrates how one person’s action or lack of action can ignite a literal firestorm throughout a community.
The same can be said for earthquake safety. That’s why it’s important for residents and businesses to prepare for all of the natural hazards they face rather than only one. Once communities rally together to deal with one hazard, the same organization can readily and effectively deal with other hazards facing the area.
When a building collapses, deaths and injuries may affect not only one family, but extend to the communities they are a part of as friends, workers, worshippers, customers, and students. That impact grows exponentially with the multiple residential or commercial buildings inevitably fail in major quakes.
The results cause not only painful emotional loss, but a heavy economic burden as well.
Anticipating this, Arizona in 2018 conducted a full-scale earthquake drill planning for the scenario that 400,000 Southern California evacuees go there to seek shelter there following the devastation of a massive earthquake.
The reason for this anticipated wave of California evacuees is simple: Most structures identified as at risk of failure in an earthquake represent older, more affordable housing and commercial buildings that provide much-needed manufacturing, logistics, and servicerelated jobs in the communities they serve.
The loss of these buildings could seriously magnify our housing crisis and bring economic devastation with thousands of people left without a roof over their heads or a job to provide for their families.
The importance of building safety
Building safety is essential to our society. It ensures economic stability and protects affordable housing to help keep our communities strong. That’s good for everyone.
Learn more about the impacts of earthquakes on community resilience by watching “The Resilience Advantage” — an ongoing webinar series featuring experts addressing risks from natural hazards, building safety, social concerns, and business and economic impacts associated with seismic resilience of buildings. There is no cost to participate in or view the recorded webinars. The webinars are sponsored as a public service by Optimum Seismic.
Optimum Seismic sponsors the webinar series as a public service, and has teamed up with a coalition of leading business organizations and government officials to present information valuable to property and business owners making informed decisions about resilience. We hope you can join us.
The next webinar on the topic of is from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 21 — with others planned throughout the year. For more information, visit optimumseismic.com/the-resilienceadvantage. Past webinars are also posted there for those who missed any of the series.
Contact Optimum Seismic today to arrange a complimentary assessment of your building’s earthquake resilience by visiting www.optimumseismic.com or calling 323-978-7664.
About the Author: Ali Sahabi, a licensed General Engineering Contractor (GEC), is an expert in seismic resilience and sustainability. He is Co-Founder of Optimum Seismic, Inc., which has completed more than 3,500 seismic retrofitting and renovation projects for multifamily residential, commercial, and industrial buildings throughout California.
