Sid Morel started his fire service career in 1984 as a reserve firefighter for the Fallbrook Fire Protection District in Fallbrook, CA. Sid attended the Rancho Santiago Junior College Fire Academy in 1986 and was hired as a full-time firefighter in 1987, now North County Fire Protection District, (NCFPD).
The Gavilan Fire occurred on February 10, 2002, and the experience of fighting this wildfire ultimately sparked Sid’s interest in solving why homes burn and ways to prevent it. The Gavilan Fire started in the Santa Margarita Valley and when the ash settled, the Gavilan blaze had burned 5,763 acres, caused $25 million in damage, consumed 43 houses, and exposed the point of Fallbrook’s vulnerability that would be driven home five years later by the catastrophic Rice fire, which injured five firefighters and destroyed 206 homes. (Pfingston, 2012)
Sid was a concrete and framing contractor on his days off from the fire department and helped rebuild numerous homes destroyed during the Gavilan Fire. Talking with the residents who lost their home gave him valuable insight into the heartbreak and devastation losing a home in a wildfire can cause a family.
The Gavilan Fire was the first wildland fire that Sid had fought that resulted in such devastation. The next year the Cedar Fire and the Paradise Fire erupted and put Sid and his crew on initial attack of the Paradise Fire. The experience of trying to protect structures under the severe Santa Ana wind events made it clear to Sid that there are a lot of little things that cause a home to burn, and it wasn’t just the vegetation or defensible space. The ember storm accompanying the fire front proved the way homes were being built and maintained was another huge cause in losing homes in a wildland fire.
Sid became Fire Marshal at NCFPD in 2005 and his background in construction and firefighting experience greatly helped him in the role. Sid was one of two California Fire Marshals invited to evaluate the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety Wildfire Ember testing on a normally built home. (ibhs.org)
Sid created a Wildland Fire Module for the Fallbrook Community Emergency Response Team, (CERT) that resulted in his teaching the module to CERT teams throughout North San Diego County.
A back injury and multiple surgeries resulted in Sid’s early retirement from NCFPD in 2014. He was hired as a non-safety Fire Marshal for the Deer Springs Fire Protection District, (DSFPD), there until 2016.
Sid created the Santa Margarita Fire Consulting, LLC business in 2015 and has put together a staff with a combined wildland fire experience of over 200 years. Santa Margarita Fire Consulting specializes in:
- Fire Protection Plans
- Community Wildfire Protection Plans
- Lithium-Ion battery storage facility technical reports
- Wildfire Defense plans specific for individual homes.
- Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) consulting and compliance.
- Teaching a Wildfire awareness module to Community Emergency Response Teams. (CERT)
Santa Margarita Fire Consulting, LLC has offices in California, South Carolina, and Nevada and will respond anywhere in the United States to address Wildland Fire Concerns.
Dave Bacon’s fire service career began in 1963 with the U.S. Forest Service on the San Bernardino National Forest. Dave served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam from 1968 and 1969 as a crash rescue firefighter. After Vietnam, he returned to the San Bernardino NF, then the Tonto National Forest, Arizona; Gila National Forest in New Mexico; as well as Shasta Trinity and Klamath National Forests in northern California. He culminated his 35-year federal career by being promoted to Chief of Fire and Aviation Operations in the Cleveland National Forest in southern California. During Dave’s career, his expertise as a wildland firefighter took him on assignments throughout the United States, Mexico, and Alaska fighting wildland fires. He retired in 1999.
Dave has been on the frontline of Fire Protection Plan development as those plans started in San Diego County after the 2003 Cedar Fire. Dave started writing and reviewing Fire Protection Plans and Fuel Modification Plans in 2004 and he became the primary author / reviewer for Firewise2000, Inc. where he was responsible for producing and reviewing over 200 Fire Protection Plans.
Dave’s experience and expertise in wildland firefighting operations and post-fire recovery make him a highly sought after expert to facilitate several Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) programs. BAER addresses post-fire emergency stabilization and other post wildfire problems to protect public safety and prevent further degradation of the landscape, mitigating post-fire damage to cultural resources. https://www.nifc.gov/programs/post-fire-recovery
As wildland fire codes have become stricter, it is harder to get projects approved. Dave’s experience and ability to think outside the box have become an invaluable asset to Santa Margarita Fire Consulting. Sid and Dave have taken on projects that other consultants could not get approved. For instance, Santa Margarita Fire Consulting has gotten dead-end road length and properties with protected native species approved through negotiation and mitigation approved by various fire authorities.
Edited by: Dave Bacon 25Mar2024