Office of Emergency Services
Operations
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The El Dorado County Office of Emergency
Services (OES) falls under the umbrella of the
Sheriff’s Office, however, their responsibilities
include the entire county and all government
agencies within. OES includes one lieutenant,
one sergeant and three deputies with full-time
assignments in Placerville and South Lake
Tahoe. OES has three primary responsibilities;
emergency management, coordination of the
Search and Rescue program and investigation
of workplace violence cases countywide.
The emergency management portion of OES
involves planning, response, recovery and
mitigation of large scale emergencies. OES is
the conduit between local emergency services
and the state. OES coordinates with CalOES for
mutual aid and statewide resources like the
National Guard. OES also has responsibility for
the County’s Emergency Operations Center
(EOC) and maintains Code Red, the countywide
telephone notification system. When OES is not
responding to emergencies in and out of the
county, they are coordinating with all first
responder partners, schools, utilities, public
works, and non-governmental organizations
and planning for natural and man-made
disasters. Unfortunately, it has also become
necessary to incorporate terrorism, active
shooter threats, and workplace violence into
regular preparations. OES maintains its
commitment to our partners to assist with
planning, training, and exercising for such
events. OES provided active shooter response
training to government and community
organizations to better prepare citizens to
respond should the worst occur.
The entire State of California is facing a “new
normal” in which wildfires are increasing in
frequency and destruction. As first responders
and emergency managers, OES has been
exploring ways to help our community prepare
for any and all types of disasters. Throughout
the year, OES attended community events to
discuss preparedness. During these meetings,
they worked to assist attendees with enrolling
in Code Red, the mass notification system used
in El Dorado County. During 2018, the
Integrated Public Alert & Warning System
(IPAWS) was added to the functionality of Code
Red. IPAWS allowed OES staff to incorporate
Emergency Alert System, Wireless Alert System
and NOAA Weather Radio systems into our
mass notifications.
El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office believes in a
whole community approach and total care for
the community. That community sometimes
includes other jurisdictions and when there is a
need, El Dorado County answers. When
another jurisdiction requests mutual aid, OES is
the unit that processes and coordinates the
county’s response. 2018 saw requests from
several large fires to include the Carr Fire in
Shasta County and the Camp Fire in Butte
County. Resources including fire, medical , law
enforcement, animal control and others were
deployed from El Dorado County. All who
participated in these deployments exemplify
the values of community and service.
Among those who served, there were significant
events worth noting. One of the OES staff was
selected to participate in one of the CalFire
Incident Management Teams. This is a
prestigious position in which members of the
teams are selected to manage the largest
disasters in the state. As part of this
assignment, the selected member spent four
weeks helping coordinate law enforcement
resources during the Carr Fire.
In November, the deadliest fire in California
history occurred, the Camp Fire. Entire
communities were destroyed and hundreds
were unaccounted for. Butte County sent the
request for help and El Dorado County and the
Sheriff’s Office again stepped forward to help.