The City of San Diego Water Department and the city’s Natural History Museum are working in partnership with wildland fire organizations to help residents learn how to be fire-smart.

In October 2004, the San Diego Natural History Museum opened “Earth, Wind and Fire,” an interactive exhibit designed to raise awareness of the history and inevitability of fire in Southern California’s arid and diverse wildlands and to help teach San Diego residents to better protect themselves from fires. The exhibit will continue through October 2005.

Visitors to the exhibit’s grand opening received copies of a new booklet created by the Water Department in partnership with the San Diego Fire Recovery Network and renowned wildland resource scientist Dr. Klaus Radtke. “A Homeowner’s Guide to Fire and Watershed Management at the Chaparral/Urban Interface” is an updated practical homeowner’s guide on creating fire-smart landscapes and home environments while at the same time conserving water. The booklet was reprinted and made available to the public free of charge in remembrance of Firestorm 2003.

“We are all appreciative that this handbook can be made available to the community at a time when the awareness of fires is high,” said Dr. Radtke. “I am positive that people can apply many of the practical guidelines presented to their home design, landscaping, and maintenance in order to live more safely and enjoyably in California’s wildand/urban interface areas.”