Fire Department Unveils First-Ever Wildfire Evacuation Plan for West Pasadena’s Arroyo Area San Rafael Hills

Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin is set to lead a virtual community meeting Monday at 6 p.m. in which he will unveil an evacuation plan for residents living in West Pasadena’s Arroyo area San Rafael Hills in the event of a wildfire.

Augustin, who has led the Pasadena Fire Department for 10 months, is from Sacramento and remembers the lessons learned from the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm that killed 25 and destroyed 2,843 single-family homes.

“Part of the issues that made Oakland Hills so devastating was the up-sloping terrain and poor access and egress,” Augustin told Pasadena Now.

“When I moved here, that was one of the very first things I noticed about the Arroyo area,” he said. The topography and road system were similar to the Oakland Hills.

“We’ve been in severe drought conditions and severe extreme fire danger over the past few years. It really was a top priority once I realized that there was not an evacuation route for that area,” Augustin said.

Augustin said he is not aware of any previous evacuation planning by the Fire dept. for the Arroyo area community and the hills that rise above the Rose Bowl to the west.

“That was the impetus of why we’ve been working so hard on that plan,” he said.

“We’ve done a really deep dive, in-depth review of that specific area with fire modeling so that we can provide very useful information that those residents will hopefully never need to use. My team and I believe it’s imperative that we have a plan in place if there is such an incident.”

Deputy Chief Tim Sell and city Press Information Officer Lisa Derderian will assist with the presentation, he said.

The event will be online at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88364239693 and will be recorded for future viewing, as well.