In the wake of the explosive July 4th ruckus at Esparto's Oakdale Fire fireworks facility, Yolo County has shifted gears into a full-fledged Local Health Emergency, a necessary move to get the environmental review rolling, which, by the way, is not your average bureaucratic tape—this is serious stuff to make sure the aftermath doesn't stick around in a harmful way. With the support of state and federal health agencies on the hook, the County's Public Health Officer, Dr. Aimee Sisson, has her eye on the prize: ensuring public health isn't compromised post-catastrophe, especially since fireworks don't exactly play nice with mother nature and tend to leave a cocktail of heavy metals and other waistband-stretching hazards.
Though the emergency declaration might sound like sirens blaring danger, it's more of a green light to dig deep into the site's safety—or lack thereof, with a laundry list of tasks including pinpointing what was stored at the explosion site, grabbing environmental samples, and beckoning state partners to bring their A-game with testing and cleanup gadgets, if needed. "Today's local health emergency declaration for the Oakdale Fire allows Yolo County to request support from state and federal health agencies for testing and any necessary cleanup if hazardous materials from fireworks are found in the soil, water, or air at or near the explosion site," said Dr. Aimee Sisson, in words caught by Yolo County's own newsroom.
Yolo County's got their back turned towards keeping the community in the loop, and you better believe they're not skimping on the details—there's a dedicated Oakdale Fire Resources Page that's serving up fresh updates and resources like there's no tomorrow. Curious locals and concerned parties can dial into www.YoloCounty.gov to feed on the latest intel straight from the horse's mouth. And for those who've got that journalistic itch needing scratching, Laura Galindo is the go-to for all media poking and prodding on behalf of Yolo County, reachable at (530) 341-9865, so jot that down.
