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The Pleasanton City Council received several updates regarding the city’s emergency preparedness last week in response to the recent wildfires that have been ravaging Southern California.
Mayor Jack Balch said he had requested staff to provide the information in light of the fires in order to make sure Pleasanton — and its residents — are ready for any worst-case scenario.
“I’m very pleased to see this follow-up and the efforts and resources the city has invested in making Pleasanton even more readily safe and responsive to emergencies in our neighborhood,” Vice Mayor Jeff Nibert said during the Jan. 21 meeting.
Several fires have been tearing through several parts of the greater Los Angeles area since the beginning of the month. According to Cal Fire, two of the fires that have been making national headlines — the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire — alone have burned over 37,000 acres of land since Jan. 7.
A newer fire, the Hughes Fire, which started more recently on Jan. 22 has since burned over 10,000 acres, according to Cal Fire.
Balch said he spoke with City Manager Gerry Beaudin after seeing the devastation in Southern California, which is what led to staff bringing forward the high-level overview of the city’s emergency preparedness plans.
Listed as one of the top priorities in the city’s five-year One Pleasanton Strategic Plan, emergency preparedness involves making sure the city is properly positioned in the event of an emergency.
The presentation served as an overview of what the city has been doing over the last several years with regards to emergency preparedness — and according to emergency services manager Leo Lopez, the city has been busy.
Lopez said last year, all city staff received training related to emergency and disaster preparedness and the city has updated emergency action plans for all of its buildings and facilities.
He also said they have updated guidelines for cooling and warming facilities as well as guidelines for power outages.
In the coming year, Lopez said the city will continue to develop and implement a crisis communication plan which has already been drafted so that, in the event of an emergency, residents can receive up-to-date notifications and information — Balch said this was especially important after seeing a lack of information flow in certain areas in Southern California.
Lopez also talked about how the city is working on an update to the Emergency Operations Plan, which will include all critical annexes and guidelines for city staff during emergency response, and that staff will present this update to the council in spring.
One regional update that Lopez also covered in his presentation was regarding the creation of a Tri-Valley consortium led by the city of Livermore, which will allow all the surrounding agencies in the Tri-Valley to come together and share resources during times of emergencies. The regional consortium hasn’t been formalized but staff said they have been meeting with the different cities to move forward with this effort.
Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department Interim Chief Joe Testa also provided an update on what the fire department has been doing to prepare for emergency situations, which he said have been happening more and more over the past few years.
“It has been our experience that the frequency and intensity of incidents in our area is increasing,” Testa said. “It’s not just something that’s happening in the Sierras or Los Angeles.”
Testa said the fire department just completed its first community risk assessment report, which is something that fire departments usually conduct every five to 10 years. He said the report includes many things such as deployment of services versus risk in the community.
He said the report outlines how the department is anticipating receiving 38% more calls for service in 10 years compared to now and that response times are increasing while the size of the department continues to remain unchanged.
Testa said the assessment report has a lot of recommendations that require significant funding and that due to the city’s budget challenges, the department will instead use the report as a tool to develop LPFD’s next five-year strategic plan.
He then finally went over how LPFD uses mutual aid systems — which is why he said the department currently has 11 of its firefighters in the LA area — throughout the region and the state so that they can receive the help they need in case of an emergency.
One important topic brought up during the meeting was in regards to the city’s water system being able to handle catastrophic fires as seen in Southern California.
Public works director Siew-Chin Yeong specifically talked about things like fire flow, which is the amount of water available from the city’s water distribution system to fight fires in a specific area.
“The fire flow is designed to handle urban fires with one or two structural fires at a time and it’s not designed for catastrophic emergencies as we have seen in Southern California,” Yeong said.
According to Yeong, the city completed a fire flow analysis in 2024 and the study identified the necessary improvements that were included in the Water System Management Plan, which was presented to the council later that night.
She said because the city is entirely reliant on the Zone 7 Water Agency for Pleasanton’s water supply, during a regional fire emergency the water supply and water pressure may be impacted as the region competes for the same water supply.
That’s why Yeong said the city’s efforts to look at constructing two new wells in the city is so important.
However, she did mention that the city’s Well 5, 6 and 8 — which were previously shut off due to chemical contamination — could be reactivated in order to help during emergencies.
Beaudin said while city-owned groundwater wells have been shut off, the council previously agreed to give the city permission to use the wells during emergency situations, which is why staff would have the right to use those wells in order to bolster water pressure during those emergencies.
“Under an emergency circumstance, we would use the well water to add pressure to the system and it would be a retroactive notification (to the council),” Beaudin said.
Yeong said the city can also use hydrants connected to recycled water systems as another way to help combat fires in case of an emergency.
While the update did revolve around a lot of the work the city has been doing in order to be prepared for any emergency — fire related or not — staff and the council’s main point to the public was to make an emergency plan for both at home and at work.
“You need a plan for your family and you need a plan until we are able to provide emergency services to you … so please make a plan,” Balch said.
