A fire has been raging in Northern California as a result of which around 5,000 people from the town of Weed had to be evacuated. AP spoke to a California Fire spokeswoman, who said that a number of people were injured from the fire and had to be hospitalized. The fire began in a factory belonging to the company Roseburg Forest Products and went on to burn a number of homes in the nearby areas. One of the most affected areas has been the town of Weed, whose mayor is 62-year-old Susan Tavalero.

Who is Susan Tavalero?

Susan Tavalero is the mayor of Weed. She was first elected to her post in November 2016 and was re-elected in 2020. During her re-election, Tavalero said that she wanted to carry on working on pressing issues. Her comments were, I feel like 4 years is not enough time to get things done”. Further adding, “We have our water issue, our housing issues, our downtown business issues, and our south Weed business district that I feel need attention.”

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Tavalero has been a resident of Weed since 1994 and had also lost her home in 2014 in the Boles Fire. The incident occurred in Siskiyou County and destroyed around 150 homes. Around 1,500 people had to be evacuated as a result of the fire.

Before she became a councilwoman, Tavalero started her public life on the board of the Siskiyou Union High School District. She was reported to be a member of the Weed Rotary Club in 2020.

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Tavalero also came under the limelight in 2021 when her town legalized marijuana. The town was often the butt of a joke because of its name. When it finalized legalized the recreational use of marijuana, Tavalero said, “I didn’t want it to be, ‘Oh, let’s go get weed in Weed. Well, then I did a lot of research. And cannabis at the time, we were just talking about medicinal, and it has a lot of medicinal values that I took to heart. It is by no means the marijuana of the 70s.”