A year after the Palisades and Eaton wildfires exploded in Los Angeles County and smaller fires popped up at San Diego County locations including Gilman Drive in La Jolla, a community atop Mount Soledad is working to make sure it’s ready for the next emergency.
Over the past few months, the homeowners association that oversees La Jolla’s Windemere neighborhood finished and distributed its first emergency preparedness manual and conducted evacuation drills including a previously unused emergency gate. Some residents of the community, which contains about 300 homes, requested home risk assessments.
Leslie Fastlicht, president of the Windemere HOA, said that in the wake of last year’s fires, she and the rest of the board evaluated where to best devote resources for emergency preparedness.
The first priority was creating a standardized action plan. Fastlicht connected with Joe Viramontez, a retired Santa Clara County fire captain who runs San Jose-based Incident Command System 4 Safety, or ICS4S.
Viramontez’s company helps schools, local governments, homeowners associations and other groups evaluate sites, map evacuation routes and train personnel on response techniques.
After interviewing Viramontez via Zoom, the HOA had him fly down to better understand the community and plan the manual.
Fire Station 16 on Mount Soledad also got involved, assisting in developing the manual and ensuring it aligned with local recommendations, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokeswoman Candace Hadley.
The final product, released in early December, consists of 66 pages providing step-by-step instructions, information, checklists and emergency contacts for a variety of disaster situations, including wildfires.
The Windemere Emergency Preparedness Manual was completed and distributed to neighborhood residents in December. (Leslie Fastlicht)
This is the first time the Windemere HOA — established nearly 50 years ago — has had a dedicated emergency preparedness manual, Fastlicht said.
“This manual is intended to be read as soon as you have it — to be read and re-read potentially every year so that homeowners are acquainted with the steps they need to take a long time before the emergency,” Fastlicht said.
“We have two main access/excess routes, one of which is the main one that everybody knows,” she said. “And the second emergency gate, which is located in the northern part of the community … was an emergency route that’s always been closed.”
The first time the HOA opened it was after a traffic collision near the entrance of the community in late August caused part of Soledad Mountain Road to be closed, and drivers were re-routed to the emergency gate.
On Dec. 9, the HOA further familiarized residents with the emergency gate by closing the main entrance for half the day. Signs and cones directed residents to the gate, which Fastlicht said many were still unaware of.
Resident Gary Eskow said some of his friends found themselves at “ground zero” of the Palisades fire and that he’s intent on taking preventive action against wildfires.
Eskow participated in the drills and was one of multiple Windemere residents who ordered a home risk assessment, which typically cost $163.
“I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t spend $160 to have the fire department come out and just [do] a full assessment of everything relating to your exterior that could be problematic,” said Eskow, who called the assessment he ordered “fabulous.”
San Diego Fire-Rescue, in collaboration with the La Jolla Fire Safe Council, offered five free home risk assessments to La Jolla residents in August. Fastlicht was one of the residents who took the offer.
The Fire Safe Council, La Jolla’s first, was born in May. Such groups, commonly referred to as the fire prevention version of crimefighting Neighborhood Watch programs, are grassroots nonprofits that partner with fire agencies to provide local education on how to best prepare for and prevent wildfires.
The councils hold meetings periodically and can potentially secure grant funding to accelerate prevention efforts such as ignition zone assessments and installing fire-resistant vents.
Since the fire department established a formal database in July, eight La Jolla residents have ordered home assessments, with another scheduled to take place soon, according to Assistant Fire Marshal Alex Kane. Assessments can be requested at sandiego.gov/fire/community-risk-reduction/wildfire-preparedness.
Still, Eskow said there’s a lot of room for growth in terms of community awareness and involvement.
“I hope the alertness and the concern continues to grow and the awareness that each of us has to contribute to make sure our own property … and the entire community is safe,” he said.
‘Zone Zero’
The Windemere HOA’s efforts coincide with a controversial new set of San Diego fire prevention rules that critics say will cost homeowners thousands of dollars to comply with and supporters say will dramatically boost fire safety.
The regulations, dubbed “Zone Zero,” were approved by the City Council’s Public Safety Committee on Dec. 12 and by the full council four days later — both times without discussion. The Planning Commission discussed the rules during a December workshop but did not vote on them.
Zone Zero, which takes effect this month, essentially says nothing flammable can be in the five feet of space directly next to a home deemed to be in a “very high” fire hazard severity zone. Plants and other landscaping are the chief focus, but the regulation also applies to fencing, patios and decks made of wood or other flammable materials.
It goes beyond the rules for Zone 1, which refers to the area five to 35 feet from a home, and Zone 2, the area between 35 and 100 feet.
Zone Zero applies only to new construction at first. Most existing homes that don’t already conform with the regulations will have until February 2027 to comply.
Though the rules apply only in very high fire hazard zones, the vast majority of San Diego lies in such a zone, including much of La Jolla.
Several areas of La Jolla — including Soledad Natural Park, La Jolla Heights Natural Park, Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve and UC San Diego — were identified as having very high fire hazards in a spring 2025 assessment by Cal Fire, the first new map since 2011 laying out fire hazard zones across the state.
But an update offers a more extensive look at fire hazard zones.
The state fire marshal’s office formalized its 2025 Recommended Local Responsibility Area Fire Hazard Safety Zones map Aug. 30.
That map indicates a strong majority of La Jolla is in a very high hazard zone.
The Local Responsibility Area Fire Hazard Severity Zone map for the city of San Diego shows a large majority of La Jolla designated as a “very high fire hazard severity zone.” (Screenshot by Noah Lyons)
According to Hadley, “local responsibility areas [in this case, the city of San Diego] can only propose additions to the hazard zones they receive and must adopt the maps within 120 days.” ♦