Beckwourth Peak Fire Protection District in conjunction with the City of Portola & the Gold Mountain Community Services District/Nakoma Community Firewise Committee are conducting a Three Community Emergency Wildfire Evacuation Exercise. The communities of Gold Mountain/Nakoma, Iron Horse, and South Portola (south of the Feather River) will participate in this drill.

The Plumas County Sheriff's Office will trigger the evacuation drill with an Emergency Alert via the Genasys Emergency Alert/Management (GEM) System at 10:00 am, Thursday, July 16th, 2026.

If you have NOT enrolled in the Genasys System, click on this link and  register now. Unsure if you’re already enrolled, click on that link, and follow the instructions.

What are you supposed to do?

Upon receiving the Genasys Evacuation Drill Alert, grab your family, your pets, your valuables, and your go bag and proceed to Portola High School (155 6th Ave) and check-in with one of our volunteers. Be sure to complete as much of the Resident Check-in Form (attached below) as possible before you receive the alert. The majority of the last section applies to the drill itself so wait until the event to rate those categories.

Need preparation tools? Navigate to Ready.gov.

NOTE: Participation in the drill is voluntary. If you only use this drill to prepare yourself and your household for an emergency evacuation, you’ll be ahead of the game.

In case of an actual evacuation, follow the instructions in the Genasys Alert. You may be directed to a particular location or simply told to exit the local area. If no location is given, evacuate to your family’s pre-determined evacuation point.

Behind the scenes of the exercise:

The following agencies will work behind the scenes to validate their evacuation protocols and update as appropriate.

·       Beckwourth Fire Protection District

·       CAL FIRE

·       California Department of Transportation (CALTRANS)

·       California Highway Patrol (CHP)

·       City of Portola

·       Eastern Plumas Health Care (EPHC)

·       Gold Mountain Community Services District

·       Liberty Utilities

·       Local Firewise USA Committees

·       Nakoma Community Association

·       Other Volunteer Organizations

·       Plumas County Office of Emergency Services (OES)

·       Plumas County Sheriff’s Office

·       Plumas Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative (PSREC)

·       Plumas Unified School District

·       USFS – Plumas National Forest

Resident Check-in Form v3.0.pdf