The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office has a new way for residents to help speed up the evacuation process when a wildfire breaks out.
When firefighters scan an evacuated area to make sure everyone has gotten out, they put an "X" or yellow tag on homes, so that other crews don’t waste time trying to save people in an empty home.
Now, the department is giving people a chance to do it themselves as they leave.
"The tag is white, with red and black text that says ‘Sonoma Sheriff Evacuated’ and it’s made of really durable material so that it can withstand some of the intense conditions that we experience during fires," said Misti Wood, who speaks for the Sheriff’s Office.
Wood said they’ve ordered 100,000 of them and will begin handing them out for free in May from fire stations.
"So, this saves a lot of critical time during evacuations, particularly when the fire is moving fast and hot," she told KCBS Radio.
That way, fire crews don’t waste time knocking on the doors of empty houses, and can get neighbors out who may need more physical help when evacuating.
Wood has heard the fear that the tag will be a bullseye for looters, but said that authorities are marking homes anyway when evacuations are done.
She added that law enforcement patrols evacuation zones heavily, with previous numbers showing a handful of arrests for entering a fire zone, but very few cases of actual looting.
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