•	Never play with matches. Always give matches to an adult.
•	Stop Drop and Roll. If your clothes catch on fire stop where you are. Cover your face with your hands and drop to the ground. Roll on the ground to smother the fire.
•	Cool a burn under cool tap water for twenty minutes. This will help take away the pain and aid healing.
•	Test your smoke detectors. Test them every month by pressing the test button and waiting a few seconds for the alarm to sound. Change the battery in the smoke detector every time you adjust your clocks for daylight savings time.
•	Crawl low under smoke. If there is smoke in your house stay low. Smoke rises and breathable air remains at floor level.
•	Practice exit drills in your home. Have fire drills in your house so everyone in the family knows what to do in an emergency. Know at least two ways out of the house.
•	Have a safe meeting area outside your home. Everyone in the family should know where it is and meet there if you have to evacuate your home.
•	Community based service is important to everyone at the Larkspur Fire Department. Please feel free to call us at 927-5007 and we will help you answer any questions about emergency services and life safety. We are available to help families or groups with their specific safety concerns.

The Larkspur Fire Department reminds you that you should have an easy plan in place to handle an earthquake. An incident only last a few seconds, so the time to plan is definitely before it happens!

Look around your workstation. Find an object that you can quickly hide under. It only has to be strong enough to shield you from falling ceiling tiles, lights and broken glass. You should be able to get under this shelter within seconds and curl into a ball while sitting. Your hands should cover the back of your head and neck. Actual building collapses are very rare. Most people are injured from falling debris. Do not come out from your shelter until the shaking stops. Expect aftershocks. Gather as a group inside. Leave the building as a group if you decide to evacuate. Walk slowly as you leave. Beware of objects falling from the roof as you exit. Over 90% of earthquake injuries occur within ten feet of the exit. Look for power lines on the ground. Some of these carry 12,000 volts of electricity.

The whole group should go to a pre-designated meeting area. This should be away from power lines and objects that can come down and injure you. Parking lots work very well. Try your best to account for everyone who was in the building. Never re-enter a building that you have evacuated.

If you have to use a phone to call 911, you may have to wait on the line for over a minute to get a dial tone. Payphone service is usually restored before business or home lines.

Know how to shut off your gas and electricity. The Larkspur Fire Department offers Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) training to homeowner groups, businesses and individuals. Call (415) 389-4138, and we will help answer questions about general life safety issues or our community-based programs.

MARIN AND MANY coastal central and Northern California counties are just beginning to see the results of the phenomena known as Sudden Oak Death. The oak trees appear to be healthy and green, but in fact the trees have been diseased for a significant period of time and then suddenly turn brown. The oak tree problem is expected to last at least ten years and will permanently change the landscape of the areas affected. It should be noted that the "experts" are just beginning to understand the extent of the problem and that there are many more questions than answers. The last several weeks have produced significant media coverage with proposed funding on the local, state and national levels to combat the problem.

At this time, the best explanation for the cause of the sudden oak death is due to an over-population of oak trees and the trees being too stressed. The weakened, stressed trees are then vulnerable to the disease.

The primary disease affecting the trees is an algae called Phytophthera. Most people have been calling Phytophthera a fungus but technically is an algae. It is a strong and aggressive algae that was responsible for the Irish Potato Famine in the 1800s and devastating tree losses in Australia and Puerto Rico in the 1900s. The Phytophthera algae moves through water and this may be the way the disease is spread. It has also been speculated that the algae may be spread through soil and air. At this time, there is no known cure or effective method to stop the algae, and the experts have no idea where it came from or how it got here.

The secondary causes of the oak death are due to a fungus called Hypoxylon and beetles. The Hypoxylon is a fungus present on all trees but is not a threat until the tree becomes weak. The Hypoxylon sucks the moisture out of the tree and kills the bark. The base of the tree will show droplets of sap and broad wet areas. If you cut into the wet area, it has a distinct smell that resembles that of a strong red wine. The beetles are opportunistic to sick trees and bore into the tree. The holes will be surrounded with boring dust and will be regularly spaced. The beetles disrupt the absorption of water into the tree and allow the fungus to grow more rapidly.

At this time, it appears that the tan oak, the live oak and the black oak are all affected. From the evidence so far, they expect to lose 100% of the tan oaks and very large numbers of the others. It is also possible that the disease may spread to other species of trees.

There are a few things homeowners can do in an attempt to improve the health of their trees. It was suggested that homeowner should thin the numbers of oaks on their property and supplement the amount of water the trees receive in the dry months. Insecticides can be used to kill the beetles. Tree experts are also experimenting with various fungicides to improve the immune systems of the trees.