May 30, 2026 — At BNN’s Pizza and Prep event on May 8, 18 families received free backpacks and emergency supplies to help them start building their Go Bags. We are grateful to Sapore Italiano Restaurant of Burlingame for supplying free pizza and pasta. Kaz Chiao, CERT Coordinator and Emergency Management Specialist for the Central County Fire Department, distributed a flyer with suggested items to include in these portable emergency kits and offered tips for getting prepared for disasters.
He advised making a Go Bag for each family member, including children and babies, as well as kits for pets. These kits should include spare clothes, copies of important documents and medications. You can save documents on a flash drive or in the Cloud. To prolong the life of flashlights and other devices, store batteries separately. Emergency supplies kept at home should include a gallon of water per person per day and food for at least three to five days.
Other tips:
- Find your evacuation zone on Genasys Protect at https://protect.genasys.com/search. During an emergency, this platform will be used by local officials to map evacuation orders and warnings. Evacuations will be ordered by zone, so know which one you’re in and download the Genasys Protect app to be notified when the status of your zone changes. Evacuation alerts will be sent through many methods, including SMC Alert, Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs), social media and more.
- When you receive a warning that you might have to evacuate, leave right away before an official order comes. Otherwise, the roads might be too crowded for you to escape. Learn more about the difference between evacuation warnings and orders here.
- Sign up for SMC Alert, San Mateo County’s official emergency alert system, at https://smcalert.info to be notified of emergency situations that may include fire, weather, accidents involving utilities or roadways, or disaster notifications.
- Make a Family Emergency Plan that includes how you will evacuate and communicate, where you’ll meet if you get separated and how you will meet your family’s needs.
- Sign up for Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training to learn valuable skills to help during emergencies. The Central County Fire Department has one of the largest CERT programs in the county and trained the most people in 2025. It offers a CERT Boot Camp for teens during the summer, adult training during the fall and winter and a course taught in Mandarin in the spring. People who live, work, or play in Burlingame, Hillsborough and Millbrae are eligible for this free training. For more information, visit https://www.ccfd.org/disaster-preparation or reach out to Kaz Chiao at [email protected].
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