B. WILDFIRE PREVENTION

VMUS staff is responsible for electric facility design, maintenance, and inspection, including vegetation management. Although VMUS' electrical distribution system is 100% underground, VMUS follows best practices to prevent ignition of wildfires from its equipment. These items include:

• VMUS performs routine maintenance of all distribution facilities.
• VMUS adheres to a seasonal weed abatement and vegetation management schedule to maintain at-risk sites.
• VMUS maintains GO95, GO165, and GO174 standard clearances as part of regular maintenance cycles.
• VMUS abides by the National Electric Safety Code (NESC) Rule 012 and Rule 218 standards to abate trees, shrubs, weeds, and grass at all VMUS facilities.
• Electric system operates in a manner that will minimize potential wildfire risks.
• Take all reasonable and practicable actions to minimize the risk of a catastrophic wildfire caused by VMUS electric facilities.
• Coordinate with federal, state, and local fire management personnel as necessary or appropriate to implement VMUS' Wildfire Mitigation Plan.
• Immediately report fires to local fire departments, VMUS administration, and other City Officials, pursuant to existing VMUS practices and the requirements of this Wildfire Mitigation Plan.
• Coordinate with City Emergency Operations Center to disseminate safety warnings, emergency public information, and evacuation notices to local businesses.
• VMUS adheres to City of Victorville personnel code 2.36 for Employee Disaster Notification and Reporting.
• Take corrective action when the staff witnesses or is notified that fire protection measures have not been properly installed or maintained.
• Comply with relevant federal, state, and industry standard requirements, including the industry standards established by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

Strategies for mitigating general wildfire spread, such as building standards and community-wide vegetation management standards, are developed, and enforced by state and local government entities with the appropriate authority. VMUS, in its role as an electric utility, does not have authority over these strategies and the WMP is not an appropriate planning document for developing these requirements. Instead, VMUS will follow the requirements and guidance of the appropriate authorities.

C. WILDFIRE RESPONSE AND RECOVERY

VMUS field staff utilize hard line telephones, cellular telephones, and portable radios to communicate with internal and external stakeholders during an outage or emergency. VMUS' Outage Management System auto generates notifications to field and administrative staff. The City of Victorville maintains a two-way UHF band radios for communications enhanced by two DMR repeaters to extend the coverage area. The City radios can have up to 1,024 channels; of which twenty are currently programmed channels (eleven use repeaters and nine are simplex).

I the City of Victorville owns one Iridium satellite phone that is issued to the City's Emergency Management Coordinator or his designee during an emergency. VMUS, along with other key City personnel, have access to a Government Emergency Telecommunications Services (GETS) card and

VMUS Wildfire Mitigation Plan

June 20, 2023

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