Glenwood citizens join in on the fight

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — Jeanne Soulsby sees a lesson when she looks at the monument to 14 firefighters who died in a fire on Storm King Mountain in 1994.

“We’ve chosen to live here,” she said. “It’s up to us to make sure we’re safe.”

That’s the message the newly formed Two Rivers Firewise Council wants to share.

The 2002 Coal Seam Fire forced Soulsby to evacuate her home for five days and nipped at the edge of the Mountain Springs subdivision, where she worked for the homeowners association. She said the intense fire hazard in the area ultimately got her involved in the council.

Ody Anderson, fuels specialist with Upper Colorado River Interagency Fire Management, said, “Fire is natural; we need to learn how to live with it because we can’t suppress every single fire.”

“We’ve done suppression for so long we’ve built up fuels,” said Doug Paul, a fire mitigation specialist also with Interagency Fire Management.

The council, currently composed of four citizens advised by official fire agencies, wants to educate people and encourage homeowners’ fire mitigation efforts. The council has met since June and is looking for a nonprofit organization to handle financial matters like grant applications. The council hopes to roll out programs and initiatives in the spring.

The goal is to provide motivation and resources to anyone interested in protecting homes and communities from wildfires. The council is intended to be a grassroots, community effort and act as a link between citizens and government agencies like the Bureau of Land Management.

Contrary to some people’s beliefs, mitigation work doesn’t involve ugly clear-cutting of all trees and brush.

Glenwood Springs Fire Department deputy fire marshal Ron Biggers said thinning out brush and trees and breaking up the continuity of growth is all that’s required. That can actually improve views and allow animals like deer and birds to come into areas where they didn’t before, he added.

The council also plans to teach people how to apply for grant money for fire mitigation. Biggers said legislation has been proposed this year that could give up to a $2,500 credit on income taxes for landowners who work to reduce wildfire danger.
Landowners who do mitigation are also more likely to have their homes saved by firefighters. Biggers said firefighters are apt to focus more on a home that has had mitigation work done and could be saved during a fire, compared to a home that has had nothing done.

“If you don’t care about your property enough to do the work on it, why should fire crews risk their lives?” Biggers said.

Private efforts complement mitigation efforts on public lands and can save firefighters’ lives, he said. Private mitigation work gets recorded into community wildfire protection plans, which rate areas according to fire danger. Firefighters responding to a fire then have a better idea of how best to approach a fire.

Biggers said about 60 to 70 homeowners he knows of have done mitigation work on private land in the past five years, including in the Oak Meadows, Canyon Creek and Highlands subdivisions.

Anderson said the next big project coming up near Glenwood is mitigation work this summer on 76 acres of land near the Oak Meadows area up Four Mile Road.

Interagency Fire Management is also considering mitigation work west of Midland Avenue, he added.

Contact Ron Biggers at 384-6433 to get involved with the council or for more information.