A Town Hall meeting was held at the Anza Community Hall on Wednesday, May 28 by the Anza Electric Cooperative to present their 2025 Wildfire Mitigation Plan along with the Riverside County Emergency Management Department and CalFire.

General Manager of the AEC and President of the Board of Directors of the Community Hall, Kevin Short, introduced and conducted the presentation. The Mitigation Plan presented is required for all electric utilities in the State of California by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

Camille Collins, Emergency Services Coordinator for RivCo EMD oversees the Anza area, District 3. Collins is also the Senior for Western Riverside County. “We are one team, one fight all hazards and our mission is to enhance the safety and security of our communities by mitigating, preparing and responding for emergencies and disasters,” Collins said. EMD works along with all other emergency services including fires, help push evacuation orders and are behind the “Alert RivCo” text messaging service and wireless emergency alerts. They set up evacuation shelters in partnership with Hemet Unified School District, the Hamilton Schools and the Anza Community Hall.

EMD is mitigation focused; they identify the greatest hazards across the County in specific areas. They also focus on preparedness through Community Emergency Response Training (CERT), among many other forms of training. EMD also works with recovery, through debris management. The top risks for

the Anza Valley are wildfires, extreme weather, earthquakes and utility outages, according to Collins. “When we are building an emergency kit, we want to build them according to our risks,” she explained. It is important to stay informed during the emergency through reliable information sources, such as RivCo Ready Alert, Riverside County Sheriff, CalFire and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“Know your zone,” Collins said. It is key information to know during an emergency, apps such as Watch Duty will display the zone corresponding to your location. For more information about emergency and disaster preparedness, visit rivcoready.org.

For residents who need medical equipment at home, the AEC has introduced a solar powered battery inverter backup system for outages. Thanks to matching funds between Riverside County District 3 Office and the AEC Board of Directors, $100,000 will be invested in this equipment. More information about this new program will be introduced at the AEC’s Annual Membership Meeting in July.

Staff from CalFire spoke briefly and focused mainly on preparedness since an aggressive fire season is expected due to increasing dry and hot weather. They also responded to questions from the public.

AEC’s Mapping Engineer Casey Firth provided the infrastructure plans to comply with California regulations. Firth explained the four wildfire risks in the area which are: weather, vegetation, contact from objects and other causes. Around 400 poles

have been upgraded from wood to ductile iron. Underground structures are being upgraded to be more heat resistant.

The AEC has a rotation schedule for inspections; a full system inspection every 10 years, detail testing every 5 years and an annual ritual inspection. Weather monitoring is another form of wildfire mitigation; the AEC has 5 weather stations, and 360 high definition cameras strategically placed around their territory to monitor smoke and winds. They have also developed a relationship with Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric to share weather station information, as well as using the National Weather service to monitor temperatures.

Kevin Short explained that there are things that need to be periodically fixed within their system that require an outage. “We try to limit the outages as much as possible and try to do workarounds,” Short stated.

Between the months of November 2024 and January 2025, there were five outages courtesy of Southern California Edison. “Those were the first five PSPS events that directly affected us,” Short said. The PUC allows utilities to do this for safety reasons and fire prevention.

The AEC’s Annual Membership Meeting will be held on Saturday, July 19. More details will be provided in the Journal’s upcoming issues.

For more information regarding the AEC, and to contact their staff, call (951) 763-4333 or visit anzaelectric. org •