Marin agencies urge residents to sign up for Alert Marin and beef up defensible space after Fairfax briefing

Ross Valley Fire, Marin Wildfire and Marin County emergency-management officials urged Fairfax residents on Wednesday to prepare now for wildfire evacuations and to sign up for Alert Marin, saying county modeling and recent drills show limited public participation and persistent gaps in defensible-space compliance.

The officials told the Fairfax Town Council that only 49% of adults in town are registered for Alert Marin, the county mass-notification system that issues evacuation warnings and orders. ‘‘Really only half of the town is going to get notified that there’s an evacuation order or a warning,’’ Ross Valley Fire Chief Dan Mahoney said, urging residents to register and to treat evacuation drills as practice.

The presentation also introduced Nicole Marcucci as Ross Valley Fire’s new wildfire preparedness coordinator, funded by Measure C (the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority tax). Her responsibilities include vegetation management, alerts and public outreach, Mahoney said.

Why it matters: County officials said timely alerts and household preparedness can prevent delay and roadway congestion during evacuations, and improved household compliance with defensible-space inspections will reduce risk to both structures and firefighters.

Key numbers and tools: The county’s 2024 joint evacuation drill accounted for 108 Fairfax participants representing 63 households; officials said that was 21.2% of drill participation across Marin but only about 1.4% of Fairfax’s population. Ross Valley Fire reported completing 3,245 defensible-space inspections in 2025 but said only about 52% of residents opened their inspection reports and 33% fixed identified code violations. ‘‘We did identify 7,179 defensible-space violations … and about 33% of people actually fixed those violations’’ Mahoney said.

Marin Wildfire executive officer Mark Brown displayed traffic- and evacuation-modeling results using Ladrus AI for a Cascade Canyon scenario. His model covered 462 addresses and estimated an average of 1.5 cars per household and about 89 heavy vehicles, with an evacuation time estimate of roughly 2 hours 25 minutes to a selected staging location. Brown emphasized situational awareness on red-flag days and advised residents to ‘‘make it downhill alive,’’ explaining why moving downhill and staying in vehicles are often safer strategies than attempting to use narrow fire roads.

County response and alerting upgrades: Steven Torrance, director of Marin County’s Office of Emergency Management, said the county is streamlining Alert Marin sign-up and improving message templates for faster, clearer local alerts. He said the county reduced sign-up friction so residents can register in under two minutes and that phone, text and translated-message capabilities are being expanded.

Resources and next steps: Officials outlined available local programs — including chipper days (six annually), defensible-space grants and Firewise community support — and encouraged residents to seek help from the new wildfire preparedness coordinator for grant navigation and planning. Brown also shared a county ‘‘fire-resilient roadways’’ map indicating which roads are most survivable in a vehicle based on modeled heat-rise rates.

Council and public reaction: Council members asked about modeling assumptions, the reach of Alert Marin and options for temporary refuge areas; several residents said they want greater focus on neighborhood-level drills, water and access issues and solutions for people with access or functional needs.

Bottom line: Officials said household action — signing up for Alert Marin, completing defensible-space fixes and planning multiple evacuation routes — and neighborhood coordination are the clearest immediate steps Fairfax residents can take to reduce wildfire risk and speed safe evacuations.