Month One-Done:

Santa Clara County FireSafe Council held its annual meeting on January 20th, where we elected new Board Members and new Board Officers.

I am pleased to announce our newest Board member, Thomas Olvason. By day, Thomas spends his time as the Senior Director of Data Science, Cloud Programs Office, for a little company called Google. During the last six months I’ve come to know him, SCCFSC is fortunate to have his vision, skills and sense of humor on our team. Welcome Thomas!

We also elected new Board Officers: Rob Rennie--Board Chair, Chris Wilson--First Vice Chair, Harold Schapelhouman--Second Vice Chair, James Wolbrinck--Third Vice Chair, Rick Parfitt --Secretary and Jared Lewis--Treasurer. Reelected for another term as Board Directors are Dede Smullen, Derek Neumann and Kevin Conant.   



What made it even more special was that we honored Chief Ed Orre, who retired in December, after 25 years with CAL FIRE, and our lead partner in the SCU Unit. We presented him with a SCCFSC Challenge Coin, then toasted and roasted him down the street at the Burger Bar. 

We continued our N5 Sensor training with the county, working with several departments preparing for eventual integration within the CAD system, and working on alerting protocols and workflow processes. A big thank you to the county team, especially Shawn Whiteman who leads the county project and Deputy Fire Chief Brian Glass who leads the Santa Clara County Fire Department engagement. Appreciate your leadership.

On January 16th, we held our Q1 team strategic planning session going over projects, new and planned technology partnerships, processes and procedures we can improve and lessons learned in 2025 we will apply to 2026. Teaser: Stay tuned for more exciting AI based wildfire risk mitigation reseller and consulting partnerships announced in February and March. Then it was off to the Loma Brewing Company in Los Gatos to celebrate our 2025 success and where the real brainstorming occurred!

On January 30th, University of San Francisco Law held their 2026 Law Review Symposium: Stages of Fire: Stages of Fire: Mitigation, Adaptation, and Rebuilding. In California and elsewhere across the country, fire is not an option; it is part of who we are, who we were, and who we will continue to be. By examining three stages of wildfire preparedness and response, including mitigation, homeowners’ insurance, and rebuilding, this symposium hopes to illuminate key perspectives and provide a forum for engaged discussion on the current legal landscape and proposals for its future. I encourage you to watch the full symposium video.

Now, let the SCCFSC team take it from here. Thanks for reading.

Yours truly,



Seth Schalet

CEO, Santa Clara County FireSafe Council

Out of the gate, on January 6th, the Wildfire Solutions Coalition submitted the following sign-on letter to Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources, to urge swift action on AB 35 to avoid delay in investing Prop 4 wildfire resilience funding. AB 35 would exempt Prop 4 funds from California’s Administrative Procedures Act, which is consistent with previous natural resource bonds and will prevent costly delays and accelerate critical wildfire mitigation projects statewide. Getting funding out the door quickly is critical to protect homes, landscapes, and lives before the next catastrophic fire strikes.

Join the City of Saratoga and the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, from 5:00–8:30 p.m. at the Joan Pisani Community Center for an important seminar on evacuation preparedness.

Residents will hear from emergency response leaders, explore resource tables, and learn practical steps for staying safe during an evacuation. The event will highlight local resources and processes and provide tools and guidance to help residents take action and be prepared.

Visit www.saratoga.ca.us/EvacuationPreparedness for more information and sign up to receive updates on this seminar. 

Announcing our guest speakers of 2026.

Not that you need any enticement to attend our monthly board meetings—but just in case! The slate of 2026 guest speakers on tap is taking shape. Here is the line up for what's coming up. 

March: MJ Johns will share research & demo the games. Wildfire Games: A Community Approach to Designing Serious Games as Interventions for Wildfire Preparedness.

April: Dr. Yifang Zhu will share study Indoor and Outdoor Volatile Organic Compound Levels during and after the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires.

May: Jackson Yip, Cofounder of Paladin Industries, will present and demo Paladin’s Initial Attack (IA) platform. IA includes evaluating the fire, patrolling, monitoring, determining what additional resources are needed and implementing suppression actions to stop the fire and protect both firefighters and public safety.

June: Jay Balagna, MPH, MPhil, RAND School of Public Policy, is the lead author of Accelerating Technological Innovation Across the U.S. Wildfire Management System and will present on these findings.

July: Hussam Mahmoud will make a repeat appearance at our monthly Board meeting series. Since his first appearance three years ago, he picked up a fancy new title, Craig E. Philip Endowed Chair of Engineering, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Director, Vanderbilt Center for Sustainability, Energy, and Climate. Hussam will present on the recently released study he chaired, Wildfire Modelling and Artificial Intelligence.

September: What happens if EV charging stations burn in a wildfire, or low charged EV batteries die and start clogging the roads because they run out of juice? Join us for this insightful presentation to review an emerging issue and study all Emergency Managers, City Planners--and EV owners should read: The green gridlock: Projecting the unintended wildfire evacuation risks of EV adoption study 

Khondhaker Al Momin, E.I.T is a Ph.D. Candidate in Transportation Engineering at the University of Oklahoma, and the lead author of a recent study examining the unintended wildfire evacuation risks associated with increasing electric vehicle adoption, integrating infrastructure dependency, evacuation modeling, and system-level risk analysis.