Transparency
RED BLUFF, Calif. — Sept. 12— Hundreds of community members turned out Thursday for the annual Tehama County Emergency Preparedness Fair, engaging with local agencies and vendors providing resources, demonstrations and advice on how to stay safe during emergencies.
The fair, which has been held since 2010, brought together fire, law enforcement and emergency personnel alongside service organizations. Families explored emergency vehicles, collected preparedness materials and learned safety strategies tailored to local risks.
“My role today is basically to spread awareness on emergency preparation and the importance of just staying prepared for a wide variety of different emergency events that we have in the North State,” said Travis McIvor, emergency coordinator for Far Northern Regional Center.
McIvor said the event focused not just on wildfires but also floods, snowstorms and recent increases in thunderstorms that can cause power outages. His booth featured informational pamphlets, winter safety guides, pet emergency planning resources and even toothbrushes for “go kits.”
“One of the pamphlets has a card you can post on your window or door so firefighters or police know how many pets are inside,” McIvor said. “It’s a good way to communicate with emergency personnel when you’re not around.”
Heather Prowse, senior service coordinator in Red Bluff, said the fair helps community members build familiarity with first responders before a crisis occurs.
“Our goal is to help people to understand many different ways to stay safe, whether it’s sheltering in place, whether it’s having a go bag of necessity to leave at a moment’s notice during an evacuation order,” Prowse said. “The different agencies involved help to make an emergency less scary.”
Attendance typically reaches about 300 people each year, Prowse said, and this year’s schedule shifted to earlier in the morning to beat the late-summer heat.
“Community members bring their children — kids love the cop cars and the ambulance,” Prowse said. “We changed our times to be earlier so people could see the trucks and also focus on presentations like emergency preparedness workshops.”
McIvor emphasized that preparation should begin before disaster strikes.
“It’s good to use what I like to call ‘blue sky weather’ — when there’s no hazard around — to better prepare before an emergency shows up,” he said. “Always have a plan, check on your neighbors and family, and make sure you’re ready for anything.”