Household Information for 1105 Altschul Avenue

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Emergency Contacts

Fire / paramedic emergencies:

Menlo Park Fire Protection District: 911 (non-cellular) or (650) 688-8400.

Police emergencies:

San Mateo County sheriff: 911 (non-cellular) or (650) 726-8286 (dispatch centre). Non-emergency: (650) 363-4911.
Menlo Park police: 911 (non-cellular) or (650) 325-4424. Non-emergency: (650) 330-6300.

Poison Help (California Poison Control System): (800) 222-1222.
Animal Control (Peninsula Humane Society): (650) 340-8200.

Utilities urgent matters:

PG&E (gas leaks, power outages): (800) 743-5000. Outage maps (1, 2)
PG&E (updates on power outages): (800) 743-5002. Customer service: (800) 743-5000. We're in rotating outage block 10 subblock F. (address lookup)
West Bay Sanitary (sewage outflows): (650) 321-0384. Emergency line: (650) 321-0384.
S.M. County Public Works (sewage outflows): (650) 363-4765, or (650) 363-4000 after hours. Emergency line: (650) 599-7281 (per USA 811 North).
Recology San Mateo County (refuse pickup): (1, 2) (650) 595-3900
AT&T (ex-SBC, ex-Pacific Bell) line down: 611 (non-cellular) or (800) 310-2355.
Water (California Water Service emergency repair): (650) 854-5454, (650) 367-6800 (according to USA 811 North), during business hours, and (650) 553-4631 after hours. We're in their Bear Gulch District, but they'll mostly need street address and cross street.
Street lights (Menlo Park Public Works - Transportation Division): (650) 330-6740.
Street lights (S.M. County Public Works), 24 hours: (650) 599-1407.
Comcast Business: Emergency line: 888-824-8219. Accounts: (800) 266-2278 or (800) 391-3000. California customer service: (800) 945-2288. Customer service: (877) 589-8809 Billing: (800) 934-6489. Technical Support: (866) 316-1619.
Menlo Park Public Works: Emergency line: (650) 330-6780 (per USA 811 North).
AT&T (former PacBell/SBC/etc.): Emergency line: 510-645-2929 (per USA 811 North).

Street Sweeping: As of Dec. 2015, occurs 1st Thursdays & 3rd Thursdays.

For context: We are not inside the Menlo Park city limits, but many of our neighbours are. (1105 Altschul Avenue is on a strip of unincorporated county land called variously West Menlo Park or "University Heights".)

Wildfires / Air Quality Information (AQI): (link)

PurpleAir: Note: URL tweaks reporting to apply "US API" conversion recommended to match AirNow's AQI reporting, exclude (irrelevant) indoor sensors when checking wildfire air pollution, and report a 10-minute average. <- Your most-important resource.
Fire and Smoke Map @EPA, includes both official & "lower-cost" (e.g., PurpleAir) sensors, has a time lag
EPA AirNow (static AQI map; shows 3 hr data a/o page load)
BAAQMD AQI forecast
IQAir AQI & forecast
World Air Quality Project AQI map (one of many sites aggregating US EPA, PurpleAir, and other data)
IQAir AirVisual Earth 3D real-time air pollution & winds map
NOAA HRRR-Smoke model visualization
NOAA GOES Image Viewer (satellite imagery)
AccuWeather air quality info/forecast
US Wildfire Activity Web map
Satellite Signals map (enter 37 degrees 25.82 mins N, 122 degrees 12.25 mins W, size=10)
CalTopo map (includes "fire activity" option)
Watch Duty Web site and smartphone app, a multipurpose tool showing active wildfires, thermal hotspots, wind patterns, AQI, and firefighting aerial activity, maintained by volunteer firefighters, dispatchers, reporters, radio scanners, and first responders across the western US: Tweak "layers" to select data shown.
NOAA Geostationary Lightning Mapper
NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System map (note date selector!)
S.F. Chronicle CA Air Quality and Wind Map
Windy.com wind map
National Fire Situational Awareness map (may not work on some Web browsers)
CAL FIRE CZU Twitter via Nitter privacy/no-ads proxy (includes links to Operations Briefings video)
CAL FIRE CZU Facebook
CAL FIRE top-level incidents page: subpages cover current incidents
InciWeb Incident Information System: interagency site for response to emergencies & similar (may not work on some Web browsers)
NWS weather forecast

We are in CAL FIRE (California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection) evacuation zone MP-E001, serviced by CAL FIRE's CZU (San Mateo Co. / Santa Cruz Co.) Administrative Unit (map).

DIY Air Filtering: (link)

During a woodsmoke emergency such as the S.F. Bay Area had in August and September 2020, stay indoors as much as possible, drink water, consider wearing N95 or better filter masks (especially when outdoors), and possibly seal openings around windows and doors. But a DIY filter for interior air that you put together with a common 20" box fan, scrap cardboard, duct tape, and 20"x20" air filters rated MERV 13 or better will also help greatly. Stock up on air filters before wildfire season, as they will sell out.

Three easy designs
Article with plans & instructions for the classic Corsi-Rosenthal 4-filter design
Designs & guides for numerous Corsi-Rosenthal-type assemblies
Valerie Aurora's DIY gadget for filtering a window and still being able to open/close it
Nick Sousanis's links about Corsi-Rosenthal boxes and ventilation
Consumer Reports 2022 air filter buying guide (ratings are member-only; 3M Filtrete 1900 was top-rated)
Consumer Reports 2023 air filter ratings (full report member-only, Filtrete top-rated)
Equivalencies among MERV, FPR, & MPR filter-rating numbers
Study showing that Corsi-Rosenthal DIY boxes give significantly better smoke-filtering results than alternatives

I hear persistent rumours that the best air filters for this purpose are 3M's "Filtrete 1900" (rated MPR 1900, equivalent to MERV 13) ones, any size as long as one side is 20", and you can use 20"x30" ones to construct a tall rectangular rather than square box (or, say, 20"x14" ones, if you prefer a short rectangular one). Among other places, Lowe's has them, plus online retailers.