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Last week's 6.0-magnitude Napa earthquake is a reminder that Marin could be better prepared for the inevitable next natural disaster.

It's not just quakes.

The greatest threat to life and property in Marin is wildland fire. The worst-case scenario is an earthquake on a windy day that starts a fire. It's a combination of which local fire departments are well aware.

Marin's top-rated fire and police departments are prepared. Their equipment is good and thanks to prudent leadership, they've been trained for any eventuality.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that public safety departments are most effective after a calamity hits.

Efforts before disaster strikes should be increased.

In the 1990s the late Supervisor Hal Brown made preparedness for a potentially catastrophic wildland fire his highest priority. Fire Safe Marin came about and became a proactive player.

Brown understood that post-tragedy, no one will ever say, "you did too much." He never forgot that his top job was public safety.

Today, Fire Safe Marin continues but it has devolved into more of an interagency coordinating committee. Now chaired by Brown's 2nd District successor, Supervisor Katie Rice, its board is composed of department heads.

Fire Safe Marin needs to restore its role as bully pulpit and again become a galvanizing force for action. It could do that by adding a small executive committee composed of those elected officials who are effective communicators and whose principal passion is fire safety.


There are practical steps Marin County government and our 11 incorporated cities can take right now to mitigate risk.

Unreinforced masonry buildings are the most immediate threat of collapse during a quake. Witness the destruction of historic structures in the relatively mild Napa event.

Marin cities and the county need to promptly update their surveys of these mostly brick buildings and then set a retrofit compliance date within 12 months.

With Americans' ever-brief attention span, a catastrophe presents a short window of opportunity to accomplish change. The high cost of retrofitting structures looms larger as time passes and the far greater cost of ignoring the problem or delaying the work prevails.

Most Marin fire departments have programs to train and deploy Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers. More volunteers, particularly younger residents, are needed to help by devoting the small amount of time necessary to qualify.

Elected officials should follow the example of Mill Valley City Council members, all of whom committed to be CERT volunteers.

About 50,000 Marinites live in the interface where suburbs overlap forests. That's the prime danger zone. Marin shouldn't forget what the 1989 Berkeley-Oakland fire demonstrated when it roared through foothill neighborhoods. Once a fire gets out of control on a day with a dry north wind, our only relief will be what a firefighter called the Great Pacific Firebreak, aka, the Pacific Ocean.

Mount Tamalpais is covered with flammable invasive species, dead tan oaks and a generation of accumulated dead brush. A fire could start at a marijuana farm campfire, a homeless encampment, by a downed power line or, what many firefighters quietly fear, by an arsonist.

Whatever the cause, under adverse conditions we are all in big trouble.

Job one is removing this hazardous debris from the mountain.

It's a matter of priorities. An extra $10 million for brush removal would do wonders. In a zero-sum world, that means other less essential county and city projects would need to be deferred.

That's painful for politicians with pet projects, but they'd be wise to understand the public's wrath will be even more harsh if after a disaster Marinites discover more could have been done.

Columnist Dick Spotswood of Mill Valley share his views on local politics on Sundays and Wednesdays in the IJ. His email is