By Ray Birch
SANTA ROSA, Calif.—One credit union CEO whose headquarters narrowly escaped California wildfires in October of 2017 and which is now being threatened by a new blaze is facing the sobering fact that possibly the worst is still to come.
Brett Martinez, CEO of the $4.3-billion Redwood CU here, acknowledged that it is not comforting knowing the 2018 California “fire season” lies ahead, even has it has learned some difficult lessons when it comes to fires.
“It sounds crazy to say that we are approaching the beginning of the fire season,” said Martinez. “I know they say the fire season is now 12 months of the year here. But there still is the time of the year when fires are more likely to occur. When we got hit bad last year by fires it was the first week October, and that is just ahead. So this has been a very bad stretch for fires in California and it’s still very early in the fire season.”
As John Cassidy, CEO at the $973-million Sierra Central CU in Yuba City, Calif., told CUToday.info in a previous report, bracing for more frequent and larger fires has become the new normal in California. Martinez agreed.
“I guess I hate to admit it’s so, but yes, and something has got to change,” said Martinez. “It’s the topic of discussion up here all the time, and it’s in the news all the time. It will take us a good 10 years to recover from the October fire of last year. Think of all the acres that have burned around here, and I guess the good news now is that a lot of the forest has burned. But the bad news is there still is a lot more to burn.”
As Cassidy observed in the earlier CUToday.info report, there are some who argue that because forests are not being “managed,” with thousands of dead trees on the ground and heavy brush, wildfires are getting bigger and lasting longer. Others, however, argue that that is the natural state of the wild areas and the increasing damage and losses are due to more people moving into these environments.
Tensions Are High
Martinez said that tensions in this part of the country are high.
“There seems to be a lot of concern now among residents and drama,” said Martinez. “Someone goes out on their porch and smokes a cigarette and 10 911 calls are made. So, things have changed a lot.”
What is also changing, said Martinez, is the number of wildfires in California and their size and intensity.
“Last October’s fire was a game-changer for us, as we came very close to losing our corporate facility that night when the fire swept through, destroying 7,000 homes in a four-county area,” he said.
Martinez emphasized how fast the fire moved, saying most of those homes that were lost were destroyed overnight.
Brett Martinez
“More than 5,300 of those homes were within a two-mile radius of our corporate office,” said Martinez, referring to the Tubbs Fire that at the time was the largest in terms of home loss.
A New Fire
Today, Redwood CU is dealing with fires once more, this time the Mendocino Complex Fire. But the impact to staff and members, fortunately, has been smaller, said Martinez. The current fire has claimed approximately 150 homes—far fewer than the thousands of houses lost last October—but it still has significant effect on the community.
“While the impact has not been as devastating as far as home loss, we are again dealing with the same issues—it’s hard to breathe from the smoke, kids can’t go back to school, businesses are closed …”
The Lessons Learned
Martinez said Redwood has learned lessons from the last fire that are helping it better prepare for future wildfires.
“One of the biggest things we learned is that your systems can be as great as you want them to be, up and running with strong backups, but they won’t be useful unless there are employees to run them,” Martinez said.
He explained that in the October fire that at any time in the early days of the disaster there were about 150 employees who were evacuated from their home.
“And you don’t want them driving to Southern California to stay with family,” said Martinez about the blaze that destroyed 23 employees’ homes and thousands of members’ residences. “You have to make plans for how you will temporarily house them.”
The credit union scrambled and found places for staff to stay, and has now firmed up lodging in the event another fire forces a large number of staff to leave their homes. As CUToday.info previously reported, Redwood turned part of its main office into a day care center for employees’ kids since schools were closed.
Clearing the Air–Literally
Redwood also learned that it needed to find ways to quickly clear smoke from its offices, a problem that occurs when winds shift, Martinez said.
“We brought in huge air purifiers that removed the smoke from our locations,” said Martinez, who added those units are not part of the current disaster plan.
Martinez emphasized that the current Mendocino Complex fire, while very large and deadly, has fortunately not had as big an impact on the credit union and membership as the fire from last October. He said that both times the credit union’s disaster plan worked very well.
While getting members back on their feet with zero-interest short-term loans and other assistance has been a focus during both fires, Redwood also raised more than $32 million to support those who were affected by the fires in the counties the CU serves, which CUToday.info previously reported.
Martinez said the credit union had raised $3 million for fires during 2015 and 2016, but when it hit $32 million for those affected by last October’s fires, RCU suddenly had a lot of money to manage.
“Every dollar raised went to fire victims. It’s lot of money and everyone needs lot of money from all the devastation,” he said. “You have members fleeing their homes on foot dressed in pajamas and slippers, and having nothing else. Really, it was not enough.”
‘It Was Pretty Insane’
But Martinez said the credit union is proud of that fundraising effort and the number of people the credit union could assist. He said it was not a simple job managing those funds and seeing that they were properly distributed.
“It was pretty insane,” recalled Martinez about managing and distributing the money. “You don’t know how much you are going to raise. There were four different counties we had to support with the money, which made it more difficult because of the politics and different needs of each community. Raising the $32 million was a lot of work, but nothing compared to distributing the money to the right people who needed it. You had to protect against fraud and everyone had an opinion about what needed to be done. Getting through that process was taxing and exhausting. But all the money went to the right people and we are very proud of what we accomplished.”