Northeast Teller County Fire hosts community wildfire preparedness event
TELLER COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- Saturday morning, the Northeast Teller County Fire Department held their annual community wildfire preparedness event at their station in Woodland Park.
In the wake of the recent wildfires in Teller and El Paso Counties, this information is very important for the community to know. There are key elements of what everyone in the region needs to know to be prepared for when a wildfire hits. This starts with the "Ready, Set, Go" program.
"Ready" means creating defensible space around the home. "Set" gathering all your documents. Lastly, "Go" means getting out when you don't feel safe.
"We want homeowners to be responsible before the smoke is in the air," Northeast Teller County Fire Chief Tyler Lambert said. "It's not the time to start mitigating your home when the smoke is close to you."
Various experts in fire mitigation are working to provide the community with resources to learn how to prepare the exterior of their home and property to be better protected from fire.
"One of the first things we look at is your address," Lambert said. "We want to make sure you have an address posted at your house, make sure your driveways are clear enough to get fire trucks in and back out to turn around."
Fire departments in the area also provided home and driveway inspections. Fire officials evaluated the person's property to make sure a firetruck can make it up to the home. Then, they gave homeowners an idea of how well their exterior is prepared for a wildfire.
"Around your home we want to make sure you don't have flammable materials up against your house," Lambert said. "We want like a rock bed close to your home. Cut your trees away from your house and overhanging the house."
Another important aspect in wildfire preparedness is making sure you're correctly signed up for emergency alerts.
"Any time we do evacuations, that area will be contacted through peak alerts," Lambert said. "So its very important for the public to sign up for that."
If you couldn't make it to the event Saturday, the Northeast Teller County Fire District encourages you to give them a call at 719-687-1866 to learn more about these resources provided.
