Every disaster, whether caused by natural phenomena or human error has devastating effects on society. It leads to loss of life, property and other resources. It also leaves the people in rebuilding efforts, spending their time and effort in attempting to restore the previous infrastructure, household goods, businesses, and other important amenities. The most important aspect of both types of emergencies is disaster preparedness. It ensures that society is ready for any emergencies and has the right resources to ensure that they manage it and avoid the loss of life and property. It is the responsibility of planners, policymakers and everyone in the community to recognize that they can face any disaster at any time (Gernay, Selamet, Tondini & Khorasani, 2016). They must assess the risk factors for the disaster and ensure that they are ready to deploy the necessary resource to address it. The level of preparedness determines whether the emergency either escalates or shrinks. It also ensures that the neighborhood is aware of the risk factors and takes the right measures to be on the safe side in case an emergency occurs. Early warnings and the existence of emergency response services are also important.
Comparing and Contrasting the Disasters
Fires are some of the most common disasters occurring each day. They can either occur in the wild away from any residential areas or in populated cities and estates. The essay considers two recorded instances of fire, one of them due to natural causes while the other being as a result of human error. The man-made emergency considered is Camp Fire, which was a wildfire in California in 2018. The natural disaster is the 2013 Seaside Park New Jersey Fire. The two disasters are considered to be some of the most serious fire emergencies that are recorded in the nation’s history for the past decade (Zhoua, Wub, Xu & Fujitad, 2018). The fires spread across vast regions and led to millions in dollars in destruction. Camp Fire occurred in rural areas and mainly affected rural homes mostly in a town called Paradise and forests (Wong & Shaheen, 2019). On the other hand, the Seaside Park fire occurred in a commercial zone in New Jersey and mostly affected business complexes and some residential apartment buildings. Both fires were a learning moment for emergency response services in the country. It was a demonstration of how different groups can handle emergencies and prevent loss of life while others can mismanage a disaster and fail to prevent the loss of life and property.
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To show the similarities and differences in the two disasters, it is important to first assess the causes, effects, locations, and resources deployed in each of the disasters. It is also important to look into how each of the stakeholders and residents was prepared for such an emergency and how successful they were in controlling it (Gill, Stephens & Cary, 2013). The man-made disaster, Camp Fire, was the deadliest fire ever recorded in the history of the state of California. It also proved to the most expensive in terms of both destruction and management efforts. It started on November 8, 2013. At that time, California was experiencing a dry season. The fire started in Butte County in Northern California. Investigations show that the main cause was a faulty electric line, which produced sparks and ignited several areas along its transmission zone. The fire spread fast due to an east wind that was blowing in the county (Wong & Shaheen, 2019). The wind brought it downhill from the initial locations. It moved fast and soon reached the rural residence of Coricow. By about an hour, it had become a firestorm that quickly spread to a town called Paradise, which was at the foothills. The fire was spreading at a rate of a football field every second.
In less than one and a half hours, the town of Paradise took center stage. The fire was later determined to have originated from Camp Creek Road, where the electric line passed. Due to the forest cover around the county, it was difficult to maintain the fire. Efforts from various emergency response groups were unable to contain it. They were deployed from virtually all fire departments in California and the neighboring states as well as the National Guard, Prisons, the Coast Guard and the military. It was only after 17 days later that it was controlled as a result of the winter rainstorm. What started as a human error was controlled by a natural phenomenon. After the fire, emergency departments estimated that at least 85 civilians had lost their lives. There are 12 others injured give firefighters. After 17 days of the raging firestorm, more than 150,000 acres of land were consumed. It also destroyed about 11,000 buildings, including one hospital, several schools, businesses, and houses (Gill et al., 2013). The town of Paradise was destroyed as the fire rescue teams did not have enough time to respond to the disaster. The fire was spreading so fast that they realized their building was on fire before they could gear up and move out.
The Seaside Park Fire of New Jersey also shows some similarities to the Camp Fire besides the causes and location. The fire started at 2.05 pm on September 12, 2013. Later investigations show that it started underneath a candy shop in Frozen Custard on the Boardwalk. Similar to the Camp Fire, the Seaside Park fire was spread by the wind. The city recorded about 30 to 40 miles per hour in wind speed on that day. In an hour, the fire had spread quickly through the roofs of various buildings. The roofing material ignited the nearby buildings, even those that were under reconstruction from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy the previous year. After about 2 hours, the fire had spread about eight blocks in the city. It burnt about 50 businesses down. It reached the Casino Pier and the Royal Sands Condominiums, but it was soon contained. In three hours, about 400 firefighters had surrounded the fire (Zhoua, 2018). They were from various departments including the Forest Service, Port Authority and the neighboring county. The most successful resources were the water cannons from Union county. It had procured the cannons with the support of the federal government to respond to the nearby cities in case of a terrorist attack.
After investigation, the Seaside Park fire was determined to have started as a result of the floodwaters from Hurricane Sandy. The city was still attempting to drain the floodwaters, using storm drains across the nearby areas to allow the building efforts. Even after a year, the drains were still full and the water levels were high. The authorities determined that the floodwaters compromised electric wiring under the boardwalk. The subfloor of the nearby buildings was also compromised due to water damage. The buildings had faced structural damages from the hurricane. Therefore, after ignition, the fire soon found its way into the buildings. The resources deployed, however, were able to assist in a quick evacuation. The city was on high alert due to the dangers after the hurricane and was quick to respond to assist in moving the public to safety (Gernay et al., 2016). There were only three reported injuries. The main losses were on the property, with 50 businesses and other residential apartments being destroyed. The city paid about 7 million dollars for the entire cleanup process, which took more than 60 days before completion.
The main differences in the two disasters are seen in the preparedness as well as the ability of the relevant departments to control the fires. Even though both fires were caused by electric lines, the difference is that Camp Fire was as a result of human error while Seaside Park was due to floodwaters. The departments involved, however, showed some differences in response. California had some challenges responding to put out the fire due to the location. Butte County is a rural region in the Northern part of the state (Gill et al., 2013). The fire also started at a place with dry forest cover and vegetation. It spread at a speed where the emergency response services found it difficult to arrive on time. People in the town of paradise were forced to hide inside storm drains or dive into bodies of water to escape the fire. The other fact was that California exhibited some level of poor preparation. They were unable to contact the relevant authorities on time. They also failed to plan on how to contain a wildfire, which has been done in some other states by separating forest cover into grids and putting fire barriers between each grid to slow the spread.
The other difference was on the type of resources that each state deployed. The city fire in Seaside Park could have spread faster and caused a loss in life were it not for the emphasis of speed by the responders. They were quick to establish a halt of traffic on areas surrounding the boardwalk to allow quick evacuation. They had also liaised with other counties and departments and in less than an hour, each of the departments had converged to assist in putting out the fire and controlling the crowds (Gill et al., 2013). Each response team showed a high level of professionalism as they addressed the issue in a few hours. In California, however, earlier proposals to set up a fund to assist in rural disasters that could lead to wildfires fell on deaf ears. The politicians and landowners saw no need to contribute more to disaster preparedness such as procuring or hiring planes in case of such emergencies. They suffered the consequences by losing the billions worth of property as the state was forced to scramble for help in departments that they had not informed eerier of any such requests. They were also slow to use data to examine the direction of the fire and use counter-measures to contain it in one location. The only help came from the winter rainstorm, a natural act.
The two emergencies demonstrate similar disasters that had differing causes. One was as a result of faulty electrical lines as a company sought to increase its profits while another was due to floodwaters, a natural and inevitable phenomenon. In the two instances, there are differences in how each group was prepared to address the challenge. The authorities in New Jersey were proactive and ensured that they could contain the fire quickly without loss of life. On the other hand, the responders in California were unable to contain the fire, leading to the deadliest such emergencies they have ever experienced. It shows that the lack of proper planning leads to losses for the civilians (Wong & Shaheen, 2019). The people of Paradise, for example, are still rebuilding the town despite being compensated by the electric company that caused the disaster. The emergency should be a learning moment for all stakeholders to avoid a repeat of such losses in the future.
References
Gernay, T., Selamet, S., Tondini, N. & Khorasani, E. (2016). Urban Infrastructure Resilience in Fire Disaster: An Overview. Procedia Engineering , 131, 1801-1805
Gill, A. M., Stephens, S. L. & Cary, G. J. (2013). The worldwide “wildfire” problem. Ecol. Appl., 23, 438–454
Wong, S., & Shaheen, S. (2019). Current State of the Sharing Economy and Evacuations: Lessons from California. UC Office of the President: Institute of Transportation Studies. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/16s8d37x
Zhoua, L., Wub, X., Xu, Z., & Fujitad, H. (2018). Emergency decision making for natural disasters: An overview. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction , 27, 567-576
