Assistant Fire Chief of Prevention, Pablo Herr has been fighting fires for over 20 years. He says he wants to make sure that if it comes to the worst, our community is prepared.
"The federal government, they want you to get ready for three days. Nobody's coming to help you for three whole days. Probably it's gonna be quicker than that here in the Roaring Fork Valley, but we would encourage you to be ready for three days, and that includes a gallon of water per person, per day. So we start adding it up. Say it's, it's just Lily and me. We got to get ready to go. So you got your three gallons of water? I got my three gallons of water. Oh gosh. That's already about 50 pounds of stuff just with water. Then we need our food, we need our medicines, we need our important papers, but we'll tune you up if you come on by"
"Wildfires, like avalanches are a part of life on the Western Slope, and learning to mitigate them and live with them isn't an impossibility. Herr says you can refrain from planting trees near your home, keep a go bag, and use an app called Reachwell to receive emergency alerts. While it's true, wildfires are a natural feature of the landscape, human interference has caused them to increase in both frequency and size.
We used to think wildfire came in seasons, but you can see year round now that wildfires happen throughout the U.S. and the world. And in Colorado, we're having wildfires all year round. So while we gear up this time of year, it's a concern all year. For all, for firefighters and the general public, the climate change is a reality. And we managed our forest differently in the past. Now we understand that it's a natural cycle. We should learn to live with fire. And if we're gonna build out into the wildland urban interface, we should make some precautions.
The Wildfire Preparedness meeting is happening Tuesday, April 19th at 5:30 PM in the Carbondale Fire Headquarters on Meadow Wood Drive. Questions can be submitted online ahead of time, and a Spanish translation will be provided For KDNK news, I am Lily Jones.
