Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has launched its new online Safety Action Center.
Here’s what you can do when you visit the Safety Action Center:
- Share information on the site and help your family and neighbors take the first steps toward being prepared for emergencies.
- Sign up to be notified when there are new features on the site.
- Pledge to help your more vulnerable neighbors during emergencies.
- Record a video of your pet showing how you’re getting them ready for a quick escape in case of emergency and what you’re packing in your pet’s emergency kit.
- Take the quiz to make sure you have what you need in your emergency kit and download the handy checklist to help you to include what you’ll need.
- Learn how to open your garage door manually in case the power is shut off for safety or if there is an emergency outage.
- Map out an escape plan for you and your family and practice it at home.
- Use the 12 tips for creating defensible space around your home to help keep fires away.
- Update your contact information so PG&E can reach you if a Public Safety Power Shutoff might impact your neighborhood.
“The Safety Action Center can help everyone get started on their safety journey by taking an important first step,” said Sumeet Singh, PG&E Vice President of the Community Wildfire Safety Program. “With videos, interactive features and checklists, the site is a one-stop shop for wildfire and emergency preparedness and critical safety information.”
13 comments
Opening the garage door … I so often see this reason in wildfires as for loss of life; the electricity was out so my elderly Mom was stuck with the car in the garage and the garage door down.
We don’t have an electric garage door. But, if you do, and the car is in the garage, and you need to get out in an emergency such as a wildfire: Get in your car, start it up, put it in reverse, give it some gas, and back out. Any car will bust through a garage door. My mom went through at least 2 backing out when she didn’t realize … for whatever reason … that the garage door was down. And that was in the 1960s – 70s.
Otherwise, yes, learn how to use the manual opening attachment in your electric garage door. They all have one. But for life saving emergencies, just bust out of the thing.
Mary’s feeling her oats tonight 😉
Mary’s feeling her oats tonight! 😉
It’s going to take a lot of intestinal fortitude to consider busting through even a lightweight plywood type garage door. If your door is a rollup type you can adjust the torsion springs so that when all the way down, the door will start upwards with a lift of a finger after the release latch is pulled.
For a swing up door, perhaps a simple counterweight device might work. In a normal situation the electric operator is capable of moving the door in either direction, assisted by the tension springs. How about rigging a counterweight system to raise the door automatically when the release is pulled? This might be as simple as a rope and pulley system with a counterweight at the back of the garage.
Sounds like a fun project.
We’ve had enough power outages that I got skilled at using the manual garage door process. I have also had the chain get off a little bit and to adjust that you need to unlink the door from the chain which is the same process. Neighbors don’t have to worry about this though because they don’t use their garages for what they were intended and instead have to worry about break in’s on the street. 😉
@Kirkwood,
I would NOT recommend that people mess with the torsion springs on their roll-up garage doors unless they know what they’re doing. For those who don’t know what they’re doing, it’s a dangerous job best left to professionals.
Chicken Little – Your point is well taken. My post was meant to offer ideas, not a how to. I have adjusted my own garage door and understand both the physics and mechanics.
If it is just a temporary power outage for safety reasons, I sure wouldn’t want to mess up the back of my car like that for what might turn out to be a false alarm. If it were an actual wildfire nearby, I might just start walking and hope somebody would give me a ride out.
If I actually needed to get out with my car, I can get the door open to a point in two steps. With an open six-foot ladder up against the door to prop it open, I pull the chain back and lift the door as much as I can, holding it with one hand and dragging the open ladder under to hold it in that position with the other. It has to be in just the right position to hold the door up. Once it is propped up like that, I can force it open the rest of the way. I can’t lift it in one operation, it is way too heavy, and their is actual resistance to opening it manually, and I’m guessing most elderly can’t lift it at all. It’s why so many elderly die in these fires.
It should have some kind of quick resease, or emergency release, built in for just such occasions. It wan’t that heavy and hard to open before the automatic opener was installed, so it isn’t all the door’s weight that is the problem. It is some kind of resistance caused by the chain drive … or whatever.
I could pull the release and open the door. But I appreciate the emergency advice. I never really thought about it but the aluminum door wouldn’t be that hard to crash through. Fun too, maybe a story to tell the grandboys. Thanks Mary for the tip.
There is always the possibility, also, that if there is a fire anywhere nearby that is threatening, or a PGE shutdown is announced or imminent, move the car out of the garage temporarily and park it on the drive until all danger of evacuation or destruction has passed.
If PG&E spent as much money on fixing their lousy power grid as they do on stuff like this there wouldn’t be any need for stuff like this.
PG&E needs to supply power to the ratepayer that is safe and reliable.
That’s it, nothing more.
If they can’t, find an organization who can.
Previous CEO Geisha Williams was about to slip down that dangerous slope of being a Social Justice Warrior CEO ~ You know like a Jack Dorsey or Jeff Bezos. Did she really want be at war with 50% of PGE employees and customers? Even worse being so far behind in “compliance” inspections that the company currently is that the Feds would easily be able to step in with daily fines until those required inspections are completed.
The PGE Intranet is a hoot with some of the PGE feel good articles and the comments from the employees blasting them, saying just what you’re saying, Cellophane.
PGE needs to abide by their Mission Statement of Providing SAFE, RELIABLE and EFFICIENT Energy.
There is always a solution that doesn’t involve destruction.
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