Monument Fire Chief reflects on years of service in So. Cal. and urges county residents to mitigate
MONUMENT, Colo. (KRDO) - As the country watches the devastating fires burn through southern California, one local firefighter is looking back on the years he spent protecting the same area that's now ablaze.
Monument Fire District Chief, Andy Kovacs knows exactly what it's like to fight fires in southern California because he did it for 25 years. He can also draw comparisons to our own wildfire dangers here in southern Colorado and what more needs to be done.
RELATED: Black Forest Fire Archives
The offices of the Monument Fire District are surrounded by reminders of one of Colorado's most destructive wildfires, the Black Forest Fire. In 2013, the fire consumed almost 500 homes in Black Forest.
Over the past year, Kovacs said his district partnered with 23 HOA communities to remove fuels and mitigate properties. He continues to ask homeowners new and old to make sure they are checking all their boxes when it comes to protecting their properties.
"Home mitigation, home inspections, proper home construction, fuels mitigation. Those are the things that are going to limit the extent of a conflagration or a wildfire," Kovacs said.
