Let’s Chat June 25, 2025

Be fire-wise protecting your home from fire hazard with Jessica Slawson, Assistant to the City Manager and Assistant Fire Chief Brian Kane

Jessica spoke about ALERT SOUTH BAY, RHE’s Real Time Emergency Notifications System for real-time emergency alerts. This system allows the city to disseminate information via text, email, phone, and other methods during emergencies. Residents can sign up for alerts by texting "ALERTSB" to 888777 or by registering on the AlertSouthBay website The system is part of a regional effort with other South Bay cities. to ensure residents receive timely information during emergencies, including wildfires.

Jessica also provided the group with several fire safety documents including:

Jessica recently was promoted to Assistant to our RHE City Manager, Greg Grammer. She has been with the City of Rolling Hills Estates for nine years as Planning Administrator and Administrative Analyst. She is the City Emergency Management Coordinator wherein she helps promote and administer important emergency preparedness programs in the city. She also is the Public Safety Liaison with the L.A. County Fire Department and Sheriff’s Department where she works closely with Deputy Derek Clotworthy, the Neighborhood Watch coordinator in Lomita. She also oversees a bimonthly Neighborhood Watch/Neighborhood Leadership meeting. As you can tell, Jessica’s focus is on community engagement with an emphasis on emergency preparedness.


Chief Kane introduced the Genasys Protect app for your computer or smart phone that will provide you with your zone and necessary information that will assure against receiving false information. With the Genasys Protect mobile app, you can follow a zone or turn on your location to get notified about danger wherever you are. For more information see https://protect.genasys.com or search “Genasys Protect” on you phone’s app store.

The conversation included a look at the current, updated local fire map which includes fire hazard severity zones along with insight on the brush clearance requirements, including “Zone 0” requiring the removal anything combustible including vegetation and potted plants, within 5 feet of the home. Questions and answers followed the discussion.

A comparison of the new fire hazard zones with the previous version can be found on the CalFire web site. Here is a direct link to the comparison map. Of note previously all of the PV Penesula was in the very-high hazard area. With the new map there is a large area of the penesula, including Rollingwood that is no longer considered to be in the high-hazard zone.

Speaker Brian Kane was promoted to assistant fire chief, Los Angeles County Fire Department, on February 21, 2025. He is assigned to Division I, South Bay which includes Rolling Hills Estates. He has served the Department for over 25 years, since beginning his career as a firefighter. As Assistant Fire Chief, Chief Kane is responsible for providing technical and administrative supervision to staff allocated to Division I within the Central Regional Operations Bureau, which is comprised of 10 cities, three battalions, and 20 fire stations. He has several assistant chiefs and many battalion chiefs (fire stations) under his command – including Catalina Island. If there is a two-alarm fire or higher, he will get a call, even in the middle of the night.