We’re celebrating our 63 Year Anniversary of Sister City connections between Viña Del Mar, Chile, and Sausalito, California — and new emergency preparedness training for our friends in Viña Del Mar.
Celebrating 63 Years
On December 22, 2022, a disaster took place in our Sister City of Viña Del Mar, Chile.
It all started on a very hot summer day with high winds and extreme drought conditions. In the late afternoon, a brush fire started at the top of the hill above the town of Viña Del Mar. With the winds picking up and the dry conditions, the fire soon grew out of control. It rolled down the hills to within just two blocks of their fine arts museum.
This unexpected disaster burned more than 500 homes, displacing many families and putting an extreme burden on city workers and services. In the aftermath, our contact within the city of Viña Del Mar reached out to us and asked if our Sister City relationships would help them to learn more about our best practices in the city, the county, and the State of California when we have experienced similar disasters.
As a result, we connected Viña Del Mar with our own Emergency Preparedness and Southern Marin Fire departments and began a series of presentations around our best practices, assisting with county and state information and programs.
Emergency Preparedness Training via Zoom
We are looking forward to in-person training and continuous information sharing, in order to assist Viña Del Mar in developing safety and disaster preparedness programs for their own communities.
That is real people-to-people diplomacy at its best!
Our thanks to Joan Cox our City Council member for her coordination and our Marin County Emergency Preparedness team, Southern Marin Fire District, and Mill Valley Fire Departments.