 So, you've got a ton of experience in the area and on the subject matter. Where does this incident kind of fit in your mind? In environmental health. Well, environmental health is a division of public health. So actually right now I'm representing not only environmental health, but public health and EMS as a division as well. But as far as environmental health goes, I've been talking with other directors of environmental health that had similar wildfire incidents in their counties and trying to get myself up to speed. We've had wildfires before, but not as bad as this one has been. And so our involvement has been in the past for wildfire. Some of the same concerns with environmental health as we're having now, which would be smoke inhalation. In this particular fire it sounds like smoke inhalation is not that big of a public health issue, but it can be, especially for those that have asthma or respiratory conditions. Then we also worry about the ash itself. Depending on the home or the structure that has burned, that ash can contain heavy metals. It can contain lead. It can contain asbestos. And if somebody is digging around in it, a lot of that can be inhaled and cause severe health issues. So that's one of the things we want to get the word out is as you're going back, you're wanting to see if there's anything left of your home or your structure that you use proper respiratory protection. Don't start raking through it as we've seen and digging through it without that. Because if the fire burned through, let's say your structure and in the garage you had chemicals, those chemicals can still be concentrated there. And that can get absorbed into the ash and then you can inhale it and it can cause health issues that way. So that's one of the other issues we look at. Then the other thing that we are dealing with right now is when there's a fire going through, a lot of these rural areas, they're on water well systems. So those water systems, if the fire actually burned across the well, then there's a lot of times there's damage to the well itself. So that could lead to them not having a potable water source, but also just the power out to a well can cause a disruption in the pressure from the pump and it causes a backflow situation where it draws into the well some potential contaminants. So we have been notified by the California Department of Public Health that several of their systems, which are the larger water systems, are put on what they call a boil water notice. That means the resident shouldn't drink or cook with the water without boiling it first or they should use bottled water until it has been tested and deemed that it's safe. So that's another issue that we're dealing with. And then of course the aftermath, the post-fire recovery process is really going to involve a lot of environmental health staff because we're going to be there. Their septic systems have been affected. Their water wells have been affected. And if the structure is burned, part of the process of rebuilding will involve us. But then the major problem is the debris management. There's going to be a lot of debris that's left behind. A lot of that could potentially have contamination from the same things I just talked about asbestos or heavy metals that can't go to just any landfill. It has to be one that's lined so that that doesn't potentially contaminate groundwater. And then again, if there were chemicals, sometimes you're seeing like automobile repair shops that have a lot of chemicals that may have been destroyed or burned in the fire. And that left behind could cause environmental damage. So again, the concern is that any of that would potentially get into the groundwater and contaminate groundwater sources. And since everybody out there is dependent on groundwater sources for their water source, we want to make sure that that's properly cleaned up after the initial fire emergencies over with. And were the hospitals and EMS services here fairly overwhelmed with the response? Right. EMS has been working closely with the one hospital that's located there to at first they had sheltered in place with their patients and went on generator power, but now it's looking like they are going to have to evacuate. So they're working closely with them to make sure that they have not only the transportation for those patients, but then the other hospital locations that they can be transported to. EMS is also making sure that if there's any supplies needed, we're talking about potentially taking up boxes of the N95 masks. They're the air respirator mask that you would wear if the residents start going back into their homes to do the cleanup. That way they're not inhaling some of the potential ash that has the contaminants. And then also public health has sent nurses there to the shelters. We want to make sure that anybody that has medical needs, that those needs are being addressed at the shelters. Our staff also takes a look at the shelters to make sure that the food is being protected, again with the water situation. You don't want a shelter that's potentially on a boil water notice to be using that water to prepare food or to use it for drinking water. And so they're making sure that that's taken care of. So they've done some shelter inspections as well. Those are some of the areas that we look at. One of the other things that we'll do as the fire camp set up for the firefighters has to prepare food. We'll want to make sure. The last thing that they would want to have is a foodborne illness that has occurred before. So we will do an inspection of the kitchens that are serving the food for the firefighters as well. And where does this sort of rank in the incidents that you've been a part of in your decades of experience with the camp? This is the largest incident I've been a part of. And it has required more of our environmental health resources as well as public health resources than I've seen before. Have you had to sort of adapt or create new functions or thought processes to respond to this? We have. We activated our DOC for the public health department. And so we had, from environmental health alone, we had four people there that were experts in water, hazmat, and food, and solid waste. So we wanted to make sure we were covering all our bases. That's the other thing I failed to mention. The hazmat, we did some initial mapping of all of our hazardous materials facilities. We had our GIS specialist, because we would have the chemical inventory for like the flammable liquids that the firefighters would want to know about. We don't have everything mapped. So like if it's an individual home and a propane tank, we wouldn't have that. But if it's the propane tank supplier that has the large quantities of propane, they would want to know where those were at. So their firefighters would be able to stay a safe distance from that propane tank. Also, it's chemical storage, petroleum storage products. Any of that, we would want them to know where those were located. And because that would obviously cause a concern for their safety. So we initiated the DOC and started to work right away. As soon as the fire broke out, we started working on mapping all of our hazmat facilities, all of our water wells. And so we would have that information ready and available. Is the particular climate here, it can be fairly windy or extremely windy at times, is that helpful from a environmental health standpoint to clear the air or to thin out that smoke column? That, I can't really talk about the weather conditions. I'm not an expert there. But typically, no, we don't have, usually anything that the smoke that's produced usually stays in the valley floor. I think we just have an unusual situation where right now it seems like it's clearing out and the smoke inhalation really is an issue for us right now. It can be with other fires, and I know it has been in the past. Any other... One question I had is, once the fire's out, that doesn't mean your job has been... No, that's probably where, once the fire's put out, that's probably in the recovery phase is probably where we'll be most engaged. We're going to have our teams go out and help with the assessment of the chemicals that might have been left behind with potential damage containers that could leak or release. We're going to have to look at the water sources and make sure that all of the water wells have been tested to make sure that the bacteriological test comes back where the contamination hasn't occurred and it's safe to drink. So that's where we're really going to get involved before, as the residents start moving back in, that we want to make sure that they're safe in their cleanup of their homes, that they're aware of the dangers that could be there at their homes. There can be one more challenging part, sort of communicating why it may take so long to consider a place safe or healthy or allow people back in to continue living if their home wasn't destroyed. Right, communicating those dangers to them because they might just be anxious to get home and start the process of clearing up and cleaning up and seeing what's left and we want to make sure that when they do that they're safe.