Paradise Fire Aftermath

Thursday, June 13, 2019 - 12:00 PM - Thursday, June 13, 2019 - 05:00 PM

Program: Paradise Fire Aftermath

ASCE has 590 Certified "Evaluators" in California's Safety Assessment Program (SAP), ready to do rapid assessments of buildings and structures after a disaster. These volunteers have completed 6-hour training to respond to disasters (primarily earthquakes and fires in California, but teams also participated in Hurricane Katrina recovery actions).
 
The worst fire in California history occurred in November 2018, killing 86 residents and burning 14,000 homes. This fast-moving fire took the town of 27,000 by surprise and evacuation was complicated by traffic jams and dense smoke conditions. A week later, 21 volunteers from ASCE responded to assist the City of Paradise with rapid inspections, working over a period of 11 days. The devastation they saw was widespread, but often bizarre and unexplainable... why some homes that were fire-traps went untouched while surrounding homes that had defensible space were leveled to ash.  Many pictures from the fire in Paradise will be shown and lessons learned how property can be saved by simple actions before a fire.
Speaker(s)

Speaker: Doug Taylor, PE

EDUCATION
BSCE Syracuse University, 1978 (4-year Air Force ROTC scholarship)
 
WORK EXPERIENCE
’78 – ’82 U.S. Air Force officer, civil engineering, Anchorage, Alaska
’82 – ’89 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Project Manager, Anchorage, AK
’89 – ’95 The Twining Laboratories, Vice President, Fresno, CA
’95 – ’04 Calaveras Materials Inc (Lehigh), Manager-Technical Services, Fresno
‘04 – ’05 Technicon Engineering Services, Manager – Materials Div., Fresno
’05 – ‘17 CAL FIRE, Associate Civil Engineer, Fresno
’08 – ‘16 CSU-Fresno, Concrete Lab Instructor
’17 – present Outback Materials, Inc. Technical Services Manager
’05 – present Concrete consultant
 
ASCE HIGHLIGHTS
Secretary, San Francisco Section 2000 - 2002
President, Fresno Branch 2004 and 2012
President, San Francisco Section 2008
H.J. Brunier Award winner
National Committee, State Government Relations 2004 - 2007
Developed program for Kenyan CE students to ‘shadow’ Branch/Section engineers in ’08 and again in ‘12
 
OTHER VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES
Board of Directors, church, 19 years
Sanger Rotary from 1996 to 2006
Head Judge, Mid-Pac Concrete Canoe Competition 2014
Head judge/provided funds for annual Fresno County MATHCounts ‘97 – ‘04
Mission service in Kenya ’06, ’07 and ’08 building 80’ and 95’ bridges
 
PERSONAL
Raised 7 children; now has 12 grandchildren
Times

EVENT INFORMATION

Date/Time: Thursday, June 13th , 2019 at Noon
Cost: $25 ($15 for students)
Location
Cattlemen’s, 2400 Midway Drive, Montgomery Village, Santa Rosa
Registration