We’re prepared, but it will take constant vigilance on everyone’s part.

The fires that devastated Los Angeles have sparked a new sense of urgency for fire preparedness in Santa Barbara and Montecito, according to top firefighters and two elected officials who spoke Tuesday night during a town hall forum at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

“If there was a good side to what happened in LA, it really drew a lot of attention to our county and the communities we have, especially the urban interface about what we can do,” Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said. “How we are going to be successful as a community here is both the response and preparedness side, and the community side.”

Santa Barbara County First District Supervisor Roy Lee and Santa Barbara City Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon hosted the evening discussion with Marc von Tillow, a wildfire specialist for the City of Santa Barbara; Ryan DiGuilio, fire marshal for the City of Santa Barbara; Santa Barbara Fire Chief Chris Mailes; Fred Tan, fire marshal for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department; County Fire Chief Hartwig; and Matt Ward, Water Services manager for the City of Santa Barbara.

About 150 people showed up for the meeting. Wade Cowper, Lee’s chief of staff, moved around the room with a microphone to give members of the audience an opportunity to ask questions.

The firefighters said the region’s history of battling fires has created a preparedness culture. Residents are used to evacuating, clearing vegetation to create defensible space and responding quickly to emergency situations.

“One thing that is different here is that we believe that it can happen here,” Hartwig said. “I don’t know if the people in Palisades, I am more familiar with the Altadena area, but I don’t think they ever thought it could happen there, to be honest. And here we do, because it does.”

He said the community takes defensible space seriously, which is important because clearing brush could make a difference to firefighters and whether they choose to defend a home.

The firefighters said homeowners need to clear vegetation to create defensible space. All fire captains have the right not to defend a fire structure if they determine it is not safe, Hartwig said.

“Every firefighter on every engine, the captain has the ability to not protect that structure, in other words,” he said. “You are assigned a group of structures, and they tend to go the structures that have the most defensible space.”

Members of the audience centered most of their questions on evacuations, available water, defensible space, and whether new development should be allowed in the foothills.

Mailes said firetrucks carry portable pumps and are able to access water on command in difficult areas, adding that the crews can use Google Earth to find available water.

Ward of the City of Santa Barbara said crews check to make sure fire hydrants are functioning properly every three years. In Los Angeles, the water pressure from the fire hydrants was not strong enough to effectively fight the fires.

Fire officials also urged members of the public to go to ReadySBC.org to sign up for emergency alerts. Only 14% of county residents are signed up.

“The days of having a police officer knock on your door is very time-consuming and not very efficient,” Mailes said, “but if we can get notifications to your landlines, your cell phones, it is going to go really quickly.”

Mailes said the City of Santa Barbara has 29 people on duty at all times across eight fire stations.

“Our stations are designed to have a four- to six-minute travel time for anywhere in the city of Santa Barbara,” Mailes said.

The department has about a $40 million budget. Mailes said that if a major fire breaks out, he will get assistance from the county, Montecito, Carpinteria and go into the mutual aid system.

He said Los Angeles County has more than 400 fire stations “and a massive workforce on duty.”

He said the city is in the process of transitioning to a new computer software program called Genesis, where residents will be put in a specific zone, and then “we have an instantaneous ability to notify that zone,” Mailes said.

Sneddon, who lives in a high-fire zone, said she could relate to people’s concerns.

“Some of us have lost our homes before,” Sneddon said. “Some of us have evacuated multiple times, with increasing frequency.”

She also noted that some people have been dropped by their insurance companies and struggled to find coverage.

“We have seen fires come more rapidly, burn longer, burn hotter, and I think all of us have a heightened awareness with what happened in the Los Angeles area and the Palisades,” Sneddon said. “It’s not hard to imagine with our steep topography, with our narrow ingress, egress, some of our water issues with the same vegetation.

“The communities that survive or do the best during these wildfires are the ones that are prepared. It’s a prepared workforce, a prepared response force, but also a prepared community.”

Supervisor Lee said he wants to put the community’s mind at ease.

“We are doing everything we can to make sure you are safe,” Lee said. “We take fire safety as our top priority.”

Homeowner Nancy Rapp asked a question about ways the fire departments were reaching out to younger families who live in Mission Canyon and the foothills. She said many of the people who attend the public hearings are seniors, and that more needs to be done to reach new members of the community.

“I know on my street we have young families now,” Rapp said. “It used to all be retired people, but we have young families. I know they all get the postcards you send out, but how are you reaching younger people, and what recommendations do you have for us? My house is just one at the bottom of a street with a lot of vegetation.”

DiGuilio said his neighborhood is also turning over with new families and that neighborhoods need to come together.

“Having communities come together, and neighborhoods, and streets, I would liken it to the old neighborhood watch programs with crime,” DiGuilio said. “If you do it with fire, and now you are talking, and having these dialogues with neighbors who may not be able to attend a meeting, who might not have a couple hours to do research.”